Exercise 2.

2 I
These answers have been put into “standard form” (premises listed above,
conclusion at the bottom). Each premise and conclusion has been expressed as a
statement, with the original passages reworded where necessary. (For example,
where the “conclusion” was expressed as a question, the answer is reworded as a
statement.) Material that is not part of the argument has been excluded, and any
premise/conclusion indicator words have been removed.
I.

1. Premise: Pain is a state of consciousness, a mental event.

Conclusion: It can never be directly observed.

2. Premise: Other waters are ever flowing in on you.

Conclusion: You cannot step twice in the same river.

3. Premise: So many matters of real concern to us center on controversial moral

issues.
Conclusion: It is important to know how to construct and evaluate moral
arguments effectively.

4. Premise 1: Business is the art of growth.

Premise 2: Growth is the essence of life.
Conclusion: Business is the art of life.

5. Premise 1: Many just persons are afflicted in this world.

Premise 2: This is unjust.
Conclusion: Not in every work of God are justice and mercy.

6. Premise: There is no definitive way to prove any one set of religious beliefs to the
exclusion of all others.
Conclusion: Religious freedom is a human right.

7. Premise: Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old

dogma, on an openness to see the universe as it really is.
Conclusion: Science sometimes requires courage--at the very least the courage to
question the conventional wisdom.

8. Premise 1: You may not be able to hear warning sirens from emergency vehicles.
Premise 2: Hearing damage from loud noise is almost undetectable until it's too
late.
Conclusion: Do not play your sound system loudly.

9. Premise 1: Without symbols, no intellectual advance is possible.

Premise 2: With symbols, there is no limit set to intellectual development except
inherent stupidity.
 Conclusion: The invention or discovery of symbols is doubtless by far the single
greatest event in the history of man.

10. Premise: On average, the lowest animal is a lot nicer and kinder than most of the
human beings that inhabit the earth.
Conclusion: Animals have souls.

11. Premise: The more stupid a member of Parliament is, the more stupid his
constituents were to elect him.
Conclusion: Democracy has at least one merit, namely, that a member of
Parliament cannot be stupider than his constituents.

12. Premise: When senility hit you, you won't know it.
Conclusion: Don't worry about senility.

13. Premise: Oil isn't helping anyone when it sits in the ground.
Conclusion: There's nothing wrong with burning crude [oil] like crazy, so long as
there's a plan for energy alternatives when the cheap oil runs out.

14. Premise: Everyone recalls the famous incident at Sybil Seretsky's when her
goldfish sang "I Got Rhythm"--a favorite tune of her deceased
nephew.
Conclusion: There is no doubt that certain events recorded at seances are
genuine.

15. Premise: We need quality highways to handle the sharp increase in the number of
Mercedes automobiles purchased by lawyers enriched by the
tobacco settlement.
Conclusion: It's good that so far states are spending more than 90 percent of the
tobacco settlement money on programs unrelated to smoking, such
as building highways.

16. Premise: If we encourage each other to blame God for injustice, we are giving the
evil or dark side a victory by keeping God's precious children–that's all of
us–away from His loving arms.
Conclusion: Although it's part of human nature to be angry at God when bad
things happen, there' s no point in doing so.

17. Premise 1: In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of
God.
Premise 2: God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.
Conclusion: Both parties in great contests may be, and one must be, wrong.

18. Premise 1: The Alaska bears are a distinct species.

Premise 2: Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is like relegating happiness to heaven--
one may never get to heaven or Alaska.
 Conclusion: It is not good enough for me if grizzlies survive only in Canada and
Alaska.

19. Premise 1: More than 99 percent of the creatures that have ever lived have died
without progeny.
Premise 2: Not a single one of your ancestors falls into this group.
Conclusion: You are very lucky to be alive.

20. Premise: You put a pen in there, you roll over in the middle of the night, you
kill yourself.
Conclusion: You don't need a breast pocket on your pajamas.