PHIL 447N Week 8 Final Exam Version 1(ESSAY QUESTIONS)|CHAMBERLAIN COLLEGE OF NURSING

Essay Questions

1. Question 1.1. (TCOs 3, 6, 7, 9) Here is a passage that contains a rhetorical fallacy. Name the fallacy, and in a paragraph, explain why the argument is irrelevant to the point at issue. Here is your example for this question: An editorial says, “Taxes have jumped by more than 30% in just two years! The governor is working for a balanced state budget, but it’ll be on the backs of us taxpayers; the people who have the very least to spend! It seems pretty clear that these increased taxes are undermining the social structure in this state. Anybody who isn’t angry about this just doesn’t understand the situation and hasn’t figured out just how miserable they are.”
2. Question 2.2. (TCOs 5, 8) In the example below, identify the presumed cause and the presumed effect. Does the example contain or imply a causal claim, a hypothesis, or an explanation that cannot be tested? If it does fall into one of those categories, tell whether the problem is due to vagueness, circularity, or some other problem of language. Also, tell whether there might be some way to test the situation, if it is possible at all. Here is your example: Our class instructor has blue eyes, because she had them in a previous incarnation.
3. Question 3.3. (TCOs 2, 4) Explain in what way the thinking of the following statement is wrong or defective. Give reasons for your judgment. There must be something to palm reading. Millions of people believe in it.
4. Question 4.4. (TCOs 3, 9) Moral relativism is the belief that what is right or wrong may differ from group to group, or culture to culture. What are the difficulties of moral relativism?
5. Question 5.5. (TCOs 6, 7, 9) Here is a short essay about an investigation.
   Scientists have learned that people who drink wine weekly or monthly are less likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. (Daily wine drinking, however, seems to produce no protective effect.) The lead researcher was Dr. Thomas Truelsen of the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Kommunehospitalet in Copenhagen. The researchers identified the drinking patters of 1,709 people in Copenhagen in the 1970s and then assessed them for dementia in the 1990s, when they were age 65 or older…………… People who drank beer regularly were an increased risk of developing dementia. -adapted from BBC News Online
   There are also four questions/tasks; write a paragraph to answer each one of them.
   (1) Identify the causal hypothesis at issue.
   (2) Identify what kind of investigation it is.
   (3) There are control and experimental groups. State the difference in effect (or cause) between the control and experimental groups.
   (4) State the conclusion that you think is warranted by the report.
6. Question 6.6. (TCOs 3, 4, 6) Read this passage below. When you have done so, answer these three questions, writing a paragraph for each question.
   Another quality that makes [Texas Republican and former Congressman] Tom DeLay an un-Texas politician is that he’s mean. By and large, Texas pols are an agreeable set of less-than-perfect humans and quite often well-intentioned. As Carl Parker of Port Arthur used to observe, if you took all the fools out of the [Congress], it would not be a representative body any longer. The old sense of collegiality was strong, and vindictive behavior punishing pols for partisan reasons was simply not done. But those are Tom DeLay’s specialties, his trademarks. The Hammer is not only genuinely feared in Washington, he is, I’m sorry to say, hated.
   -excerpt from a column by Molly Ivins, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
   (1) What position does the author take on the issue at hand?
   (2) If the author is supporting a position with an argument, restate the argument in your own words.
   (3) What rhetorical devices does the author employ in this text?
7. Question 7.7. (TCOs 7, 8) Read this passage below. When you have done so, answer the question in at least one full paragraph, giving specific reasons. Elizabeth has a paper due tomorrow morning. She has tried to write something for hours, but has no ideas for a good paper. Elizabeth remembers that her sorority sister, Deb, said that Elizabeth could use any of Deb’s papers in their sorority house computer…………..Elizabeth feels confident that she has Deb’s permission to do this. Is Elizabeth guilty of plagiarizing? Your three questions are as follows.

(1) What premises is the author using?
(2) What conclusions does the author come to?
(3) Are the conclusions justified?