PHI10003 Critical Thinking Portfolio

Assignment instructions:

This is to be the first part of your Portfolio of Critical Thinking work.

Please submit it via Canvas Assignments, with a Cover Sheet attached.

Arguments and non-arguments

1. Real-world arguments and non-arguments

(a) Briefly describe two real-life arguments you have recently encountered—either in the
media, or in conversation, or in your studies in other subjects. What were their
conclusions? What was it that showed they were arguments?

(b) Briefly describe a real-life explanation you have recently encountered—either in the
media, or in conversation, or in your studies in other subjects. What was being
explained? What showed it was an explanation (and not something else)?

Standardising and diagramming arguments

2. First standardise (1 mark), and then diagram (1 mark), the following argument.

Chimpanzees today are in danger of extinction; for with the spread of agriculture and forestry,
their habitat and their lives are threatened, because their forests are cleared to make way for
cultivation and their food trees are poisoned to make space for timber trees. Moreover, since
chimps are susceptible to all the infectious diseases of man, wherever their populations are near
new human settlements they are endangered by epidemics.

3. Standardise, and then diagram, two real-life arguments you have recently
encountered—either in the media, or in conversation, or in your studies in other
subjects.

Argument Evaluation
4. Arguments from real life

(a) Counter-considerations
Briefly explain a real-life argument you have recently encountered—either in the
media, or in conversation, or in your reading—that you think is subject to a serious
counter-consideration. Explain the counter-consideration and how serious its impact is
on the argument’s strength/weakness.

(b) Fallacies
Briefly explain two (2) real-life arguments you have recently encountered—either in
the media, or in advertisements, or in conversation—that you think commit fallacies.
In each case, (i) name the fallacy, (ii) explain how it is committed, and (iii) say how
much you think the argument is weakened by the fallacy it commits.
5. Standardisation and ARG argument evaluation
(a) First complete the partly completed standardisation below of the following argument.
People who study history are wiser than those who do not. Studying history makes a
person unlikely to repeat the mistakes of the past, and not repeating the mistakes of the
past is a sign of wisdom. Since the primary aim of education is producing wisdom, all
educational institutions should require the study of history.

Below is the partly completed standardisation. Finish it by giving each statement itsnumber (in the original passage above), and by inserting the word “Thus” before any sub-
conclusion. (0.5 marks)

Studying history makes a person unlikely to repeat the mistakes of the past
Not repeating the mistakes of the past is a sign of wisdom
People who study history are wiser than those who do not
The primary aim of education is producing wisdom
Therefore,
All educational institutions should require the study of history

(b) Now evaluate the argument above using the detailed ARG method. When
evaluating the argument, be sure to mention any counter-considerations you think of,
and their impact on the argument’s strength/weakness.