Match each flawed argument excerpt on the left with the abstract description on the right that most accurately identifies its primary reasoning vulnerability.
- Historian: To be authenticated as a genuine seventeenth-century Dutch oil painting, a canvas must test positive for authentic smalt pigment. Laboratory tests confirm that the newly discovered landscape contains authentic smalt pigment; therefore, this landscape is undoubtedly a genuine seventeenth-century Dutch work.Treats a necessary prerequisite for a status as though it were sufficient to establish that status.
- Public Health Analyst: A five-year regional survey revealed that communities with the highest per capita consumption of herbal tea also reported the lowest rates of chronic insomnia. It follows that drinking herbal tea directly prevents chronic sleep disturbances.Infers a direct causal relationship solely on the basis of an observed correlation between two phenomena.
- Corporate Director: Our corporate charter states that the executive board has a public interest in maintaining stable supply chains. Because the general public takes an interest in celebrity gossip, our board is justified in allocating corporate capital to acquire tabloid publishing houses.Illegitimately trades on two different meanings of a key term across the premises of the argument.
- Archaeologist: Excavations within the palatial ceremonial quarter of the ancient capital uncovered no iron cooking implements. We can conclude that iron cooking utensils were completely unknown and unused across the entire ancient society.Bases a comprehensive generalization about an entire society on evidence drawn exclusively from a specialized, unrepresentative subgroup.
Answer
Each flawed excerpt matches its corresponding fallacy: the historian's argument matches confusing a necessary condition with a sufficient condition; the public health analyst's argument matches inferring causation from correlation; the corporate director's argument matches equivocation on a key phrase; and the archaeologist's argument matches unrepresentative sampling.
Each excerpt exhibits a specific reasoning vulnerability: the painting argument treats a necessary requirement as sufficient proof; the health argument infers direct causation from mere statistical correlation; the corporate argument shifts the meaning of a key phrase from fiduciary duty to general curiosity; and the archaeology argument generalizes about an entire culture using an unrepresentative, elite sample.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Flaw in the Reasoning: Identifying formal and informal logical vulnerabilities, including conditional errors, causal overreach, equivocation, and sampling bias.
Estimated Time:1m 30s