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Difficulty: MediumGeneral Method of Reasoning

Analyze each of the following short arguments and match it to the abstract description of the method of reasoning it employs.

  • To resolve the company's financial crisis, we must either declare bankruptcy or secure a buyout. Since our creditors have explicitly refused to allow bankruptcy proceedings, our only path forward is to secure a buyout.Establishing a conclusion by demonstrating the impossibility of the only alternative option.
  • You claim that lowering taxes always increases government revenue by stimulating growth. But if that principle were universally true, a business could achieve infinite profits simply by reducing its prices to zero, which is clearly impossible.Rejecting a general principle by showing that its application to an analogous situation leads to an absurd result.
  • The hypothesis that the region's ancient civilization collapsed due to a single, sudden climatic shift is incorrect. Tree-ring data from that exact period shows that the climate changed gradually over a span of three hundred years.Refuting a proposed hypothesis by introducing empirical data that is incompatible with it.
  • Many reject the new dietary guidelines because the underlying study was conducted on rodents, which did not show improved health. However, rodents process these specific macronutrients through a completely different metabolic pathway than humans.Undermining an argument by pointing out a relevant dissimilarity that invalidates its underlying comparison.

Answer

The financial crisis argument matches establishing a conclusion by eliminating an alternative. The tax policy argument matches rejecting a principle by showing an absurd result. The ancient civilization argument matches refuting a hypothesis with empirical data. The dietary guidelines argument matches undermining an argument via a relevant dissimilarity.
Each argument utilizes a distinct structural technique. The first uses process of elimination. The second uses an analogy to demonstrate absurdity. The third uses contradictory physical data. The fourth invalidates a comparison by showing the subjects are not suitably similar.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the financial crisis argument to identify its core rhetorical strategy.
The argument presents two options and eliminates one because creditors refuse it.
This structural analysis allows us to match it to 'Establishing a conclusion by demonstrating the impossibility of the only alternative option.'
2
Evaluate the tax policy argument's logical method.
The argument draws a parallel between government taxes and business prices, showing that the logic leads to the impossible claim of infinite profits.
This corresponds directly to 'Rejecting a general principle by showing that its application to an analogous situation leads to an absurd result.'
3
Examine the reasoning in the historical hypothesis argument.
It introduces tree-ring data (physical evidence) to show a sudden climatic shift did not occur.
This matches the definition of 'Refuting a proposed hypothesis by introducing empirical data that is incompatible with it.'
4
Determine the argumentative technique in the dietary guidelines argument.
It attacks a conclusion based on animal testing by pointing out that human and rodent metabolisms are completely different.
This perfectly aligns with 'Undermining an argument by pointing out a relevant dissimilarity that invalidates its underlying comparison.'

Key Concept

General Method of Reasoning
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General Method of Reasoning

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