Formulating Arguments
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I have some problems with this topic, I need to evaluate this whole argument and determine whether the premises offered actually support the conclusions, I also need to evaluate the argument to show that the effectiveness of it and resist the temptation to invent new arguments for or against the conclusion.
Thanks
Adult human females should be called 'women' if only for the sake of consistency in our linguistic practice. And just to be clear, by adult, I mean a person 18 years old or older, whether that person is a high school student or a university student or a clerk or a construction worker or whatever. 18 year-old girls have the ability to be mothers, so I dont see how we can consistently use a non-adult word to talk about them. Likewise, they have the ability to vote, and surely anyone with that ability deserves to be talked about as a grown-up, not a child. Now, don't get me wrong, I dont want to go to silly extremes. If youd rather say young woman than just woman in some cases, I couldnt object, since an 18 year-old is certainly young in comparison to most other adults, and if you want to call women girls and men boys in some circumstances where its appropriate as a metaphor, such as when the men are acting boyishly or the women girlishly, then theres no harm in that either. The main thing to which I object is using a word for children as though it literally applied to adults also. I guess thats the main objection I have: girl is a word for a human female child, and to call women girls is to imply that they are children, which is inaccurate and probably has other negative consequences.
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Solution Summary
The solution provides advise in evaluating and formalizing an argument via a sample (the topic of differentiating girls and women).
Solution Preview
In answering this, first identify the point that the person is trying to make; in this case, the point seems to be that to use the word "girl" to refer to a human female over the age of eighteen is not appropriate.
You then need to consider the arguments used, and whether these arguments make sense.
Here are some of the arguments you must evaluate:
You cannot call 18 year olds girls because they can be mothers.
You cannot call 18 year olds girls because they can vote.
You can speak of "young women" and that is fine.
You can use the word "girl" metaphorically, and that is fine.
The term "woman" needs to be used to distinguish adult female from ...
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