Exercise 4-1

Indicate whether or not each of the following COULD be used as a premise or a conclusion.

*1. No one was at the scene of the crime.
2. An ugly incident.
3. Only a tall person could have gotten through that window.
4. Since.
*5. Nevertheless, if that is what.
6. Why drugs shouldn't be legal.
7. Drugs should be legalized.
*8. Opium should be cheap and it should be legal.
9. Either drunk drivers should be imprisoned or they should have their licenses taken away.
10. If drugs were legalized there would be fewer crimes.
11. If the test results are positive.
*12. Either the wind was blowing.
13. Wow!
14. The zombie only wakes at night.
*15. No person is an island.

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Exercise 4-2

For the following arguments, underline the premises, circle the conclusions and box any premise or conclusion indicators.

*1. Justice can't exist for the poor because justice is nothing but the way the rich protect their interests.
2. God exists; for, the world needs a Creator.
3. A politician can't get elected unless she lies. Therefore, all elected officials are liars.
4. Since women are smaller than men, it follows that men are stronger than women.
*5. Because size is irrelevant to intelligence, it is necessarily the case that you are wrong in stating that women must be less intelligent than men.
6. We're out of gasoline. Therefore, you had better start walking to the nearest gas station.
7. Children should not enter child beauty contests because photographers will make them pose for sleazy pictures and judges will give them drugs.
8. You don't have a suntan. So, you're not from California.
9. Since that noise you listen to has no rhythm, harmony or melody, it is not music.
*10. King Tutankhamen was not a great king because he died before his twentieth birthday.
11. All women are mortal. Xanthippe is a woman. So, Xanthippe is mortal.
12. Everybody does it. So, I ought to be allowed to do it, too.
13. The President's action was a mistake because he has put his own children in extreme danger. And, it will not reduce, but escalate terrorism. It will lead to further retaliation on our part. It will strengthen the resolve of our Arab enemies. Finally, it will push friendly Arab states into the arms of the Soviet Union.
*14. "Astronomy was born of superstition; eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity and even moral philosophy of human pride. Thus, the arts and sciences owe their birth to our vices." ??Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.

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