Terminos Poeticos

DATE: Thursday, December 8, 2011
BLOCK: 4 (Research, Reason, and Argumentation)

WORK DUE/COLLECTED/CHECKED:
1. None.

CLASSWORK:
1. December 9th debate scoring guide (not a notebook number)

2. Building a Better Argument
• Using your Building a Better Argument: Finding Premises and Conclusions (#28) handout, do #29 in a group
• Building a Better Argument: Argument Examples(#29)
• Exercise: Look at the arguments on student handout #2, Argument Examples. Students worked in one group of five and one group of six to identify the premises and the conclusions for each argument. Students had identified which premises support which conclusions. Groups finished work today before class discussion.

1. “Since pain is a state of consciousness, a ‘mental event,’it can never be directly observed.” (source: Peter Singer, “Animal Liberation,” 1973)
• Premise: Pain is a state of consciousness, a “mental event.”
• Conclusion: It can never be directly observed.
• Remind students that premises and conclusions can occur in partial sentences. Premise indicator (since) is present in this example.

2. “All segregation statutesare unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.” (source: Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” 1963)
• Premise: Segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.
• Conclusion: All segregation statutes are unjust.
▪ Premise indicator (because) is present.

3. “Genes and proteins are discovered, notinvented. Inventions are patentable, discoveries are not. Thus protein patents are intrinsically flawed.” (source: Daniel Alroy, “Invention vs. Discovery,” The New York Times, March 29, 2000)


• Premise: Genes and proteins are discovered, not invented.
• Premise: Inventions are patentable, discoveries are not.
• Conclusion: Thus protein patents are intrinsically flawed.• Conclusion indicator (thus) is present.

4. A meter is longer than a yard. Therefore, since this ship is 100 meters long, it is longer than a football field.
• Premise: A meter is longer than a yard.
• Premise: This ship is 100 meters long.
• Conclusion: This ship is longer than a football field.
▪ Both a premise indicator (since) and aconclusion indicator (therefore) are present.

5. “I hate books. They only teach us to talk about what we do not know.” (source: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Emile,” 1762)
• Premise: Books only teach us to talk about what we do not know.
• Conclusion: I hate books.
• Remember: your premises can follow your conclusions.

6. “At any cost we must have filters onour Ypsilanti Township library computers. Pornography is a scourge on society at every level. Our public library must not be used to channel this filth to the people of the area. (source: Rob J. and Joan D. Pelkey, letter to the editor, “The Ann Arbor News,” February 3, 2004)
• Premise: Pornography is a scourge on society at every level.
• Premise: Our public library must notbe used to channel this filth to the people of the area.
• Conclusion: At any cost we must have filters on our Ypsilanti Township library computers.

7. “Democracy has at least one merit, namely, that a member of Parliament cannot be stupider than his constituents, for the more stupid he is, the more stupid they were to elect him.” (source: Bertrand Russell, “Autobiography,” 1967)• Premise: The more stupid [an MP] is, the more stupid [his constituents] were to elect him.
• Conclusion: A member of Parliament cannot be stupider than his constituents.
• Conclusion: Democracy has at least one merit.
• In this argument, the first conclusion in turn serves as a premise for the second conclusion. Why does democracy have at least one...