Saddleback College

Philosophy 12
Homework #1
Summer 2017
Due Date: July 10, 2017

Instructor David Kelsey

This homework covers lectures 1-5
Version C

Part 1:

Question: Is the following an argument? If so, what are the premises and
what is the conclusion of the argument.
If minds are immaterial, then, we cannot see or touch or
otherwise perceive any mind but our own mind, of which we
seem to be directly aware. But, then, how do we know that
other bodies are really, as is our body, animated by minds at all?
Perhaps our mind is the only mind in the world, and every other
being seemingly like us is just some sort of automaton?
...Even if we are convinced of a world external to our own
minds, how can we know that there are minds lying behind
these other human bodies?
Yes, it is an argument.
1. Minds are immaterial
2. Thus, we cannot see or touch or otherwise perceive any mind
but our own mind
3. (conclusion) Thus, we cannot know other bodies are animated
by minds, and every other being seemingly like us could be some sort
of automaton.

Question: What is the issue discussed in the following passage:

Whatever we believe, we think agreeable to reason, and, on that
account, yield our assent to it. Whatever we disbelieve, we think
contrary to reason, and, on that account, dissent from it. Reason
ought then to be allowed to be the principle by which our belief and
opinions are regulated.
Thomas Reid, Essays on the Active Powers of Man
We base the logical value of an idea on whether or not we believe in it.
However, logic dictates we should choose to belief something after coming
to the conclusion that it is reasonable.

Question: Identify the premises and conclusion in the following argument:

Your car is junk. Plus you can afford a new car. So you better head to
the car dealer today because they are having a great sale on new cars.
1. Your car is junk.
2. You can afford a new car.
3. The car dealer is having a great sale on new cars today.

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4. (conclusion) thus, you should buy a new car from the car dealer today.

Question: True or False, both strong arguments and sound arguments are
deductive. (Please explain your answer.)

Question: supply a universal principle that turns the following into a valid
deductive argument:
Russia poses a threat to us so we have the right to invade them.

Exercise 5-1: #8
Exercise 5-3: #3
Exercise 5-9: #5

Chapter 6: #s 24, 27, 61, 76

Chapter 7: # 11

Question: what is the fallacy that occurs in the following passage?

Ken: I think Ill vote for Andrews. Shes the best candidate.
Robert: Why do you say shes best?
Ken: Because shes my sister-in-law. Didnt you know that.

Question: what is the fallacy that occurs in the following passage?

Moe: You going to class tomorrow?
Joe: I suppose. Why?
Moe: Say, dont you get tired of being a Goody Two-Shoes? You must
have the most perfect attendance record of anyone who ever went to
this schoolcertainly better than the rest of us, right, guys?

Part 2:
Formalize the argument seen in the following passage:
From Summa Theologica, (Question 2, Article 3)
The fourth way derives from the gradations to be found in
things. Some
things are found to be better, truer, or more noble than others.
But something
is said to have more or less of a quality according to its distance
from a
maximum. (Thus, the hotter a thing is, the closer it is to that
which is
maximally hot.) There is therefore something that is maximally
true, good,

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and noble. And this thing must be the greatest beingfor
those things that
are greatest in truth are greatest in being. Butthe greatest
thing of a kind
is the cause of everything of that kind (as fire, the hottest thing
is the cause
of everything hot). There therefore is something which is the
cause of being,
of goodness, and of whatever other perfections there may be in
things. And
this we call God.