School
of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
1st
Semester 2005
PHIL1110 / PHIL7111 — CRITICAL REASONING
Tutorial
Problems 6 - For Week 7
From
Cederblom, J./D. W. Paulsen (2001) Critical Reasoning, 5th
ed., Wadsworth, pp. 206-219.
A. Conceptual theories are occasionally offered
where there may be unclarity in the use of an existing term of the language, or
where a concept is being labelled by introducing a new term into the language.
If they are explicitly stated they will take the form of a definition: so a
concept labelled as Y is presented: ‘Something is Y if and only if it has
property P1 and property P2 and …’ (For example
‘Something is a bachelor if and only if it is a man and unmarried.’) Usually,
however, these conceptual theories are not quite explicitly stated. Reconstruct
– with all appropriate charity and
fidelity, of course - the conceptual theories that are implicit in the
following:
- Much of the trash hung
in art galleries these days isn’t really art, for to be art something must
represent an object found in the real world.
- It cannot be argued
whether this law is just. It is obvious that it is just since it was
passed democratically.
- Many questions of
ethics could be resolved if people would be mindful that an act is right
if it produces happiness and wrong if it produces unhappiness.
- A work of art can be
characterized by noting two features. First, works of art are the product
of man’s activity, i.e., they are artefacts. But unlike most tools, which
are also artefacts, a work of art is an artefact upon which some society
or sub-group of a society has conferred the status of candidate for
appreciation.
- The “positive” sense of
the word “liberty” derives from the wish on the part of the individual to
be his own master. I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not
on external forces of whatever kind. I wish to be the instrument of my
own, not of other men’s acts of will. I wish to be a subject, not an
object; to be moved by reasons, by conscious purposes which are my own,
not by causes which affect me, as it were, from outside. I wish to be
somebody, not nobody; a doer – deciding, not being decided for,
self-directed and not acted upon by external nature or by other men as if
I were a thing, or an animal, or a slave incapable of playing a human
role, that is, of conceiving goals and policies of my own and realising
them.
B. Conceptual theories in
arguments may play the role of a premiss. They can be criticized by
(a) giving a counterexample (eg. ‘The Pope is an unmarried male
– and he’s not what we call a bachelor.’)
(b) showing that the concepts used to do the defining are also
in need of clarification. (‘What do you mean by “unmarried”?’)
(c)
showing that the conditions can’t actually be satisfied (so the concept
is null.)
(i) Find counterexamples for the following:
- An object is a work of
art if and only if it is made by humans, it resembles an object in nature,
and it is beautiful.
- A person is courageous
if and only if the person has been in a position of danger, the person
acted with disregard for personal safety, and the person did so for some
noble purpose.
(ii) Is the conceptual theory in each of
the following clear enough?:
- An argument is valid if
and only if it follows from the premisses.
- An action is morally
right if and only if it is the sort of action a morally upright personin
possession of all of the facts would choose.
(iii) Are there incompatible conditions in
the following?:
- A society is free if
and only if everyone is permitted by the society to do as he or she
pleases, and everyone is encouraged by the society to realise his or her
potential..
- A work of art is
aesthetically successful if and only if it would be appreciated by most
people, and it enlarges people’s aesthetic sensibilities by teaching them
something new.