Each of the following argumentative excerpts exhibits a characteristic vulnerability in its logical reasoning. Match each excerpt with the statement that most accurately characterizes its primary logical flaw.
- Structural Engineer: Every composite beam used in the new municipal arena's cantilevered roof is individually capable of withstanding a magnitude 8.0 seismic tremor without experiencing shear failure. Therefore, the completed cantilevered roof assembly as an integrated structure will certainly withstand a magnitude 8.0 tremor without structural failure.Infers that a whole integrated structure must possess a specific property merely because every individual constituent part of that structure possesses that property.
- Agricultural Geneticist: A newly developed cultivar of drought-resistant sorghum will produce commercially viable grain yields in arid topsoil only if the farmer introduces specialized mycorrhizal fungi to support root nutrient absorption. Because this farmer inoculated the entire test field with these mycorrhizal fungi, the sorghum crop is guaranteed to produce commercially viable grain yields despite the drought.Treats a condition that is necessary for a particular outcome to occur as though it were sufficient to guarantee that outcome.
- Cybersecurity Policy Analyst: The federal oversight board must either mandate full open-source public disclosure of all encrypted communication algorithms or accept that foreign intelligence agencies will breach critical infrastructure undetected. Mandated disclosure of proprietary encryption algorithms would severely undermine domestic commercial security. Thus, the oversight board has no choice but to resign itself to undetected hostile breaches.Presumes without justification that only two extreme, mutually exclusive courses of action are available when other viable alternatives exist.
- Patent Litigator: The research team at BioMatrix asserts that their proprietary enzymatic process synthesizes industrial biopolymers at twice the speed of traditional chemical catalysts. However, the principal investigators on this team hold substantial equity in BioMatrix and stand to realize millions of dollars in capital gains if the patent is granted. Hence, the experimental findings regarding the catalytic synthesis speed must be fraudulent or invalid.Rejects an empirical claim solely on the basis of the personal financial incentives of the parties who advanced that claim.
Answer
The structural engineering argument matches the part-to-whole composition flaw; the agricultural genetics argument matches the confusion of a necessary condition for a sufficient one; the cybersecurity argument matches the false dilemma fallacy; and the patent litigation argument matches the source-bias / ad hominem fallacy.
Each argumentative excerpt maps directly to a classic formal or informal reasoning vulnerability: (1) concluding that an entire assembly will withstand seismic shock because each beam does commits the composition/part-to-whole error; (2) concluding that providing a necessary fungal inoculant guarantees a commercial harvest commits the error of treating a necessary condition as sufficient; (3) forcing an artificial choice between full algorithmic disclosure and inevitable hostile compromise commits a false dichotomy; and (4) discarding experimental findings due to researchers' financial equity stakes commits an ad hominem / source fallacy.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Flaw in the Reasoning: Structural, Conditional, Dichotomous, and Source Fallacies
Estimated Time:2m 30s