Psychology Revised

PHIL1010: CRITICAL THIN’KING
Final Exam / Fall 2018
Question 1
The following passages are argumentative analogies
(a), (b), (c) and (e)
Question 2
The analogue is when one thing is compared to another thing that is different and a conclusion is made. The analogy in this statement is “just like a piece containing intricate mechanism or a watch has a maker so does intricate natural mechanisms which are argued to have a maker also”.
Everything whether manmade or natural has its creator or maker
The first similarity include “finding a watch or other piece containing intricate mechanisms and finding intricate natural mechanisms by chance”. The other similarity is that both mechanisms have a maker
The conclusion of the analogy is: “the distinguishing feature of intricate natural mechanisms is that their side of intricacy is more and greater and exceeding all computation”
“If you found by chance a watch or other piece containing intricate mechanisms, you would infer that it had been made by someone. But all around us in nature we find by chance intricate natural mechanisms, so we should therefore infer that these too have a Maker. The only difference, on the side of nature, is that of the intricacy being more and greater and exceeding all computation. Therefore, anything has a maker” (William Paley, clergyman, Natural Theology, 1802)
The dissimilarity exists in the premises. The first premise is that a piece of intricate mechanism has a maker while the other argues that a natural intricate mechanism also has its maker.

However, the primary subject in the conclusion does not support the premises.
The premises are dependent since they work together to support the conclusion. These premises make the same argument
Question 3
(a)The statements are as follows
1. “Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, official U.S. law stipulates that the United States would view any conflict over Taiwan with grave concern.”
2. “Any war between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China would therefore quite likely embroil 2 of 4 the United States.”
3. “Look at the 1995-96 Taiwan Strait crisis, too.”
4. “As it showed, the United States does not take its interest in Taiwan’s security lightly”
(b) “As it showed, the United States does not take its interest in Taiwan’s security lightly”
(c) It provides a summary of the statements.
(d) It is an inductive argument since it starts with general statements and then it moves to make a specific conclusion.
Question 4
a) The author is recommending that “population growth has been blamed on the poor However, they are not to be blamed for this condition since the people who are responsible for this problem is people who earn more than the poverty-line income since they produce a largest number of children.”
b) The premise that supports the author’s argument is: “But while poverty stricken parents with four, five, or six children are the most publicized aspect of population growth, they are by no means the most important numerical aspect of the problem.”
Question 5
a) “Why are the classes empty today?”
b) “The professor travelled abroad.”
c) It describes a phenomenon that needs an explanation (Ribeiro, 2014). 
Question 6
The two conclusions are: “Boas are sensitive to the patterns of neuronal electrical activity” and “My boa has been trained to give me a slight squeeze.”
“My boa has been trained to give me a slight squeeze whenever she senses that I might be about to have a seizure.”
“Boas are sensitive to the patterns of neuronal electrical activity that typically precede epileptic convulsions.”
References
In Ribeiro, H. J. (2014). Systematic approaches to argument by analogy.