1. Strong. Is the sample large enough? Yes. Is the 1. Negative.

ANS-16 Answers to Selected Exercises it worked”. The herbal tea might have worked because of the placebo effect. Alternatively, the headache might have gone away by itself. 4. Pseudoscientific thinking. The arguer is explain- ing away falsifying evidence. 7. Pseudoscientific thinking. The graphologist is relying on general, Barnum-type language that applies to practically everybody. 10. Pseudoscientific thinking. Parry is explaining away falsifying data. 13. Pseudoscientific thinking. It’s not surprising that dowsing sometimes works because underground water is abundant. The only way to know whether dowsing consistently works, however, is to test it under controlled conditions. tree alive or dead?”, but there is no way, even with an army of counters, that all living trees in Canada could be located many are in remote loca- tions, growing in tall grasses, hidden under leaves, etc.. And even if these obstacles could somehow be overcome, any ongoing count would be con- tinually invalidated by the growth of new trees and the deaths of others. There are ways, however, in which the claim might be reasonably falsified. 13. Not testable. If absolutely everything doubled in size—including all yardsticks and other standards of measurement—there would be no way to detect the difference. E X E R C I S E 15.3 1. Pseudoscientific thinking. The arguer relies on an appeal to personal experience “I tried it and C-1 C REDITS 5 Reprinted by permission of Kenneth R. Merrill. 13 From Decision Traps by J. Edward Russo and Paul J. H. Schoe- maker. Copyright © 1989 by J. Edward Russo and Paul J. H. Schoemaker. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. 20 Grant H. Cornwell, “From Plural- ism to Relativism and Back Again: Philosophy’s Role in an Inclusive Curriculum,” Teaching Philosophy 14:2 June 1991, pp. 143–153. Used with permission. 54 Adapted from John Hoaglund, Critical Thinking , Third Edition, Newport News, VA: Vale Press, 1999, p. 65. Reprinted with permission from the publisher. 184 “EBR’s Students Need Your Vote,” edito- rial, The Baton Rouge Advocate , April 4, 1998. Reprinted with permission from the publisher. 185 “SAT Scores,” Letter to the Editor, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader , September 16, 1998. Reprinted with permission from Robert Butts. 190 “Don’t Rush to Adopt Mail Voting System,” editorial, The Baton Rouge Advocate , February 6, 1996. Reprinted with permission from the publisher. 191 Carmen F. Ambrosino, “Legalizing Drugs Spawns Many Problems, Solves None,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader , February 17, 1997. Reprinted with permission from the publisher. 210 Letter to the Editor of Wilkes- Barre Times Leader , June 10, 1996. Reprinted with permission from Stan Daniels. 210 From Leonard Pitts, Jr., “Don’t Use God’s Law to Beat Up on Gays,” Miami-Herald , June 8, 1997. 211 Constance Hilliard, “We’re Spendthrift ‘Environmentalists,’” USA Today , December 8, 2000. Reprinted with permis- sion of the author. 212 USA Today. 3-3-04. Reprinted with permission. 213 Richard Delgado, “Hate Cannot Be Tolerated,” USA Today , March 3, 2004. 214 Sean Curtis, “Why Cats Make Better Pets than Dogs.” 214 John Tierney. “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” March 25, 2006. Copyright © The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission. 216 USA Today. 1-31-05. Reprinted with permission. 217 USA Today. 4-8-94. Reprinted with permission. 389 Letter to the Editor, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader , August 1998. Reprinted with permis- sion from George R. Race. 409 From Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. Copyright © 1985 by Neil Postman. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group USA Inc. 485 From Paul Kurtz, The Transcendental Temptation , Pro- metheus Books. Copyright © 1986 Prometheus Books. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. A-1 USA Today . 6-20-06 Reprinted with permission. A-2 Rick Hurd. “Legal Steroids the Solution,” Oakland Tribune , December 15, 2007. This is a re-print of a column by Rick Hurd of the Bay Area News Group-East Bay in Wal- nut Creek, CA. A-2 USA Today. 8-27-08. Reprinted with permission. A-3 David Oxtoby. Reprinted by permission. “Law Makes Matters Worse,” USA Today , August 27, 2008. A-4 David Kyle Johnson. “Why Parents Shouldn’t Teach Their Kids to Believe in Santa Claus,” written specifi cally for this book. A-4 Jack Pytleski, “Defending My Right to Claim My ‘Steak’ in the Animal Kingdom,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader , July 10, 1997. Reprinted with permission from the author. A-5 USA Today. 4-16-08. Reprinted with permission.