Politician: Now that we are finally cleaning up the industrial pollution in the bay, we must start making the bay mor...
MeredithSeptember 16, 2019
The Flaw
Can someone please explain the flaw? I can't seem to articulate it and would appreciate it if someone could describe it in the correct words for me. Thanks!
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@Meredith Good question- this can be a tricky flaw to grasp. Essentially, the argument is confusing correlation and causation. It identifies two phenomenon occurring at the same time and then reasons that if the first phenomenon were reversed, the second one would reverse as well. However, we know this is not necessarily true if the former phenomena is not the cause for the latter.
In context of the prompt, the argument falsely takes that idea that when the public did not have access to the bay, it got polluted, to mean that giving the public access to the bay would ensure it does not get polluted. Similarly, answer C recognizes that when violent prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, prison violence increased, and it takes this to mean that moving the violent prisoners out of solitary confinement will ensure prison violence does not increase.
MrLawMarch 28, 2020
Since diagramming this one helped me, perhaps it will help others?
