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    Logic & Critical Thinking

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    Logic statements are presented.

    Explain whether the following is true or false. A. All reasonable arguments are true. B. The claim "If it is raining, the exposed surfaces will be wet" is an argument composed of simple statements.

    Lateral Thinking on the Regularity of the Sun

    It is noon, your lunch hour, but you cannot go out because there is a terrific hailstorm. Turning on your radio you hear the weathercaster predict that the hail will change to rain and that it will pour all day today. How can you determine whether the sun will be shining in 36 hours? Justify your answer.

    Lateral Thinking: Car Scenario

    Scenario: A young man's car developed a flat tire as he was driving along a deserted street. He pulled over to the curb and did all the usual things: removed the hub cap, unscrewed the lugs and rested them carefully in the hub cap, jacked up the car. Just as he was finishing up they all rolled out, and all five of them fell dow

    USING ANALOGIES

    1. Using one or more analogies, try to make a brief argument for or against these moral issues: ABORTION GUN CONTROL EUTHANASIA CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

    New information helps or hurts conclusions

    For each of the following arguments, try to think of some critical information that could weaken or discount the conclusion. How could the argument be expressed to eliminate the weakness? 1. Generally, women prefer men of high status. Celestina is a woman. Therefore, Celestina probably prefers men of high status. 2. Genera

    Cross the River: A Test for Logic

    Question: Nine men and two boys are trekking through the jungle and they need to cross a river. They have a small inflatable boat and it's easy enough to row it across the river. The boat however can hold no more than one man or the two boys. How can they all get across? (Hint: Suppose there was only one man and two boys)

    A logical thinking question

    Jo announces: "I have more than 999 books." Jean says: "No Jo! You have fewer than 1000 books." Mary says: "Jo has at least 1 book." Only one of these statements is true. How many books does Jo own? Discuss the method and solution used.

    SYLLOGISM VALIDITY TESTING EXERCISE

    SYLLOGISM VALIDITY TESTING EXERCISE To be a valid syllogism, the conclusion must be proven by the reasons. Carefully study the following syllogisms and decide if they are valid or invalid: 1. All zebras are striped animals. No zebras are polar bears. Therefore, no polar bears are striped animals. 2. All clowns are fun

    Logic Matrix Problem with instructions and explanation

    SMITH, JOHNSON, AND COHEN LIVE IN BROOKLYN, MANHATTAN, AND THE BRONX (NOT NECESSARILY IN THAT ORDER). THEY ARE FLYING TO NEW YOUK CITY IN A JET WHOSE PILOT, COPILOT, AND NAVIGATOR ARE NAMED SMYTHE, JENSON, AND KOHN (AGAIN, NOT NECESSARILY RESPECTIVELY). IT IS KNOWN THAT A. COHEN LIVES IN THE BRONX B. JOHNSON IS DAF AND MUTE

    How do deconstructive arguments work?

    Deconstructive arguments work by demonstrating that a position's premises yield contradictory conclusions when entailments are carefully considered. Such arguments are useful with respect to doctrinal issues because they sidestep 'inadequacy of cognitive processes' or 'irrelevance of evidence' objections. Provide a 'doctrinaire

    Chomsky the linguist vs. Chomsky the activist.

    Noam Chomsky's groundbreaking linguistic work characterized human beings as possessing an 'innate grammar' - yielding 'torrential output' in spite of 'poverty of stimulus'. In the other pole of his life, Chomsky has been struggling to enliven this 'innate person' to repudiate authoritarian processes and 'manufactured consent'.

    Riesman's Model of Civilzations: Discussing Human Societies

    In The Lonely Crowd, David Riesman offered a tripartite model of civilizations - inner, outer and other-directed. North America provides an interesting, and alarming, study of human malleability.Provide a characteriological model of persons and societies using his work.

    Working with propositional reasoning.

    Please Help. I ned assistance to tackle the following problem using logic: Consider the problem below. Answer the question given after the description of the problem. Write out a model of the logical structure of your reasoning, the logical structure of your premises, and your answer. You are helping Trinity pick her class

    Symbolic model critical thinking

    How do I make a symbolical model for these two arguments? 1. If keeping your manufacturing plants in the USA is not profitable then you should not keep the plants in the USA. However, keeping your manufacturing plants in the USA is profitable. Thus, you should keep the plants in the USA. 2. Either Enron employees saw t