Why Not Body?
Imagine that you are asked to provide a logical
critique of an essay that claims that Sylvia is a person because it
has
a human body, and R42 is not a person because he does not have a human
body. The writer gives these reasons.
1. All the people I know about
have human bodies, so R42 is not a person,
and Sylvia is a person.
2. People would see R42 and
think "robot" not person, so R42 is not a
person, and Sylvia is a person.
3. Sylvia is just an uncommunicative
person, so R42 is not a person, and Sylvia is
a person.
4. R42 is just a friendly
robot, so R42 is not a person,
and Sylvia is a person.
5. The dictionary defines
"person" as "human being," so R42 is not a
person, and Sylvia is a person.
6. Something has to be born
naturally to be a person, so R42 is not a
person, and Sylvia is a person.
Take each claim seperately. For each claim, say whether or not it
succeeds in proving that Sylvia is a person or that R42 isn't.
Logically analyze each reason in a separate paragraph.
For each one, identify the general logical principle that it appeals to
and say whether that is really good logical principle. (For instance,
the
logical principle behind #1 is "if every X I know about has property Y,
then property Y is necessary for something to be an X." If this is a
good
principle, then the fact that every computer I know about crashes
occasionally
means that something has to crash occasionally in order to be a
computer.) See logical.htm
Another way to think about logical analysis is to imagine a conversation
between this author and another person who says either "not true" and "so
what?" to each of these reasons. Imagine that the author tries to come up
with both a reason to support the truth of his claim and
a logical or moral principle to connect that claim to his thesis. If the
author can't prove that his claim is true, then it's a bad argument. If
the author can't show how the claim would support his thesis, then it's a
bad argument. He's got to do both for the argument to work. If he
fails at either one, he fails absolutely. So if you don't see a strong
reason to think that a claim is true, or you don't see how a claim could
support his thesis, then it's a bad argument.
Remember that your personal opinion isn't on the
line here. These assignments only ask about what theses can be logically
supported, and what can't. If one thesis has some logical support, and
the opposite thesis doesn't, then we have very good reason to say that
the first thesis is true and the opposite thesis is false. This is true
even if our personal opinion favors the unsupported opposite thesis.
You can try to create a coherent essay on this
topic, or you can ramble over a series of disconnected random thoughts.
Either is fine so long as you take the time to explain your reasons once
in a while. You are graded on the quality of your thinking, which includes
your ability to generate insightful comments as well as your ability to
give reasons for what you think. Never hesitate to put down a thought,
even if you can't support it at this time. Do what you can as well as you
can.
Remember, the question is whether or not the arguments given above
are
logically good.
Copyright © 2007 by Martin C. Young
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