ANS-14
Answers to Selected Exercises language—“generally acknowledged”—makes the
statement more opinion than fact. Qualifying the statement might bring it closer to a matter of fact:
“MIT is regarded among college presidents as the nation’s best school for engineering.” At least such
a claim could be verified.
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12.3
1. Rush Limbaugh is a radio-talk-show host and au-
thor who espouses a conservative point of view. His claim that condoms fail “around” 17 percent
of the time should be cautiously considered and verified with more-reliable sources. One key to
Limbaugh’s bias is his characterization of liberals in the first sentence of the quoted item. Could he
be charged here with a straw man fallacy?
4. The billboards proclaiming these “facts” are spon- sored by someone who is attempting to reduce
the level of immigration into the United States. The figures on the billboards may or may not be
correct, but anyone hoping to use them in an ar- gument would do well to corroborate the infor-
mation with other sources. A careful reader will notice the slippery language and less-than-reliable
information. In the first billboard, how little is “very little”? In the second, “arrive” is a vague
word with several possible meanings, including “visit.”
7. It may well be true that 67 percent of listeners “would prefer that the races be separated,” but that
doesn’t prove that “67 percent of people ” prefer the same. Are the callers to a radio talk show a repre-
sentative sample of “people” everywhere? Hardly. 10.
The Onion is an online parody newspaper that pub- lishes satirical articles about newsworthy events
and nonevents. Its intended audience—primarily regular readers who appreciate The Onions’ s biting
satire—won’t be misled by the passage. Given the patent implausibility of such an event, few others
will be either.
13. America The Book is a satirical romp through
American history written by Jon Stewart and the writers of Comedy Central’s fake news program,
The Daily Show . The passage is obviously a joke, but a pointed one given long-standing debates
about how disinterested the founding fathers’ motives were.
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12.4
1. Answers will vary. Here is one possibility: In her
book Starting Out Suburban: A Frosh Year Survival Guide, Linda Polland Puner suggests that most
freshmen find it difficult to be away from home for the first time. They miss some of the comforts,
such as good meals and privacy. Some are lucky enough, particularly if their family lives nearby,
to get home within the first month of school,
women in the general public who have connective tissue disease; the percentage of women with sili-
cone breast implants who have connective tissue disease; the percentage of women with saline breast
implants who have connective tissue disease.
7. Why do students choose to sit in the front row? 10. How do we define a “healthy heart”? Just red wine,
or other alcoholic beverages?
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X E R C I S E
11.11
1. Relative frequency. 4. Epistemic.
7. Relative frequency. 10. A priori.
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X E R C I S E
11.12
I. 1. Negative.
4. Negative.
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H APT ER
12
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X E R C I S E
12.2
II. 1.
