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Philo 2 Semifinal

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NAME : CELESTE MAY A.

CELESTIAL DATE: DECEMBER 01, 2022


COURSE & YEAR : BSBA – IV
SUBJECT : PHILOSOPHY 02

WEEK NO. 6 & 7


QUIZ 1

Instruction: Identify the premises and conclusions in the following passages. Some premises do
support the conclusion, others do not. Note that premises may support conclusions directly or
indirectly and that even simple passages may contain more than one argument.
EXAMPLE:
1. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people
to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
—The Constitution of the United States, Amendment 2
SOLUTION:
Premise: A well-regulated militia is necessary for the security of a free state.
Conclusion: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

2. What stops many people from photocopying a book and giving it to a pal is not integrity but
logistics; it’s easier and inexpensive to buy your friend a paperback copy.
—Randy Cohen, The New York Times Magazine, 26 March 2000
SOLUTION:
Premise: it’s easier and inexpensive to buy your friend a paperback copy.
Conclusion: What stops people from photo copying a book and giving it to a pal is not integrity
but logistics.
3. Thomas Aquinas argued that human intelligence is a gift from God and therefore “to apply
human intelligence to understand the world is not an affront to God, but is pleasing to him.”
—Recounted by Charles Murray in Human Accomplishment
(New York: HarperCollins, 2003)
SOLUTION:
Premise: Thomas Aquinas argued that human intelligence is a gift from God.
Conclusion: and therefore, to apply human intelligence to understand the world is not an affront
to God, but pleasing to him.

4. Sir Edmund Hillary is a hero, not because he was the first to climb Mount Everest, but
because he never forgot the Sherpas who helped him achieve this impossible feat. He dedicated
his life to helping build schools and hospitals for them.
—Patre S. Rajashekhar, “Mount Everest,” National Geographic, September 2003
SOLUTION:
Premise 1: not because he was the first to climb Mount Everest.
Conclusion 1: Sir Edmund Hillary is a hero.
Premise 2: He dedicated his life to helping build schools and hospitals for them.
Conclusion 2: he never forgot the Sherpa’s who helped him achieved the impossible feat.
5. Standardized tests have a disparate racial and ethnic impact; white and Asian students score,
on average, markedly higher than their black and Hispanic peers. This is true for fourth-grade
tests, college entrance exams, and every other assessment on the books. If a racial gap is
evidence
of discrimination, then all tests discriminate.
—Abigail Thernstrom, “Testing, the Easy Target,” The New York Times,
15 January 2000
SOLUTION:
Premise: Standardized tests have a disparate racial and ethnic impact; white and Asian students
score, on average, markedly higher than their black and Hispanic peers.
Conclusion: If a racial gap is evidence of discrimination, then all tests discriminate

6. Good sense is, of all things in the world, the most equally distributed, for everybody thinks
himself so abundantly provided with it that even those most difficult to please in all other
matters do not commonly desire more of it than they already possess.
—René Descartes, A Discourse on Method, 1637
SOLUTION:
Premise: The most equally distributed, for everybody thinks himself so abundantly provided
Conclusion: Those most difficult to please in all other matters do not commonly desire more of it
than they already possess

7. When Noah Webster proposed a Dictionary of the American Language, his early 19th-century
critics presented the following argument against it: “Because any words new to the United
States are either stupid or foreign, there is no such thing as the American language; there’s just
bad English.”
—Jill Lepore, “Noah’s Mark,” The New Yorker, 6 November 2006
SOLUTION:
Premise: “Because any words new to the United States are either stupid or foreign, there is no
such thing as the American language; there’s just bad English.”
Conclusion: Noah Webster proposed a Dictionary of the American Language, his early 19th-
century critics presented the following argument against it

8. The death penalty is too costly. In New York State alone taxpayers spent more than $200
million in our state’s failed death penalty experiment, with no one executed.
In addition to being too costly, capital punishment is unfair in its application. The strongest
reason remains the epidemic of exonerations of death row inmates upon post-conviction
investigation, including ten New York inmates freed in the last 18 months from long sentences
being served for murders or rapes they did not commit.
—L. Porter, “Costly, Flawed Justice,” The New York Times, 26 March 2007
SOLUTION:
Premise: The death penalty is too costly.
Conclusion: The strongest reason remains the epidemic of exonerations of death row inmates
upon post-conviction investigation, including ten New York inmates freed in the last 18 months
from long sentences being served for murders or rapes they did not commit.
9. Houses are built to live in, not to look on; therefore, let use be preferred before uniformity.
—Francis Bacon, “Of Building,” in Essays, 1597
SOLUTION:
Premise: Houses are built to live in, not to look on.
Conclusion: Let us be preferred before uniformity.

10. To boycott a business or a city [as a protest] is not an act of violence, but it can cause
economic harm to many people. The greater the economic impact of a boycott, the more
impressive the statement it makes. At the same time, the economic consequences are likely to be
shared by people
who are innocent of any wrongdoing, and who can ill afford the loss of income: hotel workers,
cab drivers, restaurateurs, and merchants. The boycott weapon ought to be used sparingly, if
for no other reason than the harm it can cause such bystanders.
—Alan Wolfe, “The Risky Power of the Academic Boycott,”
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 March 2000
SOLUTION:
Premise: To boycott a business or a city [as a protest] is not an act of violence, but it can cause
economic harm to many people.
Conclusion: The boycott weapon ought to be used sparingly, if for no other reason than the harm
it can cause such bystanders.

11. Ethnic cleansing was viewed not so long ago as a legitimate tool of foreign policy. In the
early part of the 20th century forced population shifts were not uncommon; multicultural
empires crumbled and nationalism drove the formation of new, ethnically homogenous
countries.
—Belinda Cooper, “Trading Places,” The New York Times Book Review,
17 September 2006
SOLUTION:
Premise: Ethnic cleansing was viewed not so long ago as a legitimate tool of foreign policy.
Conclusion: Multicultural empires crumbled, and nationalism drove the formation of new,
ethnically homogenous countries

12. If a jury is sufficiently unhappy with the government’s case or the government’s conduct, it
can simply refuse to convict. This possibility puts powerful pressure on the state to behave
properly. For this reason, a jury is one of the most important protections of a democracy.
—Robert Precht, “Japan, the Jury,” The New York Times, 1 December 2006
SOLUTION:
Premise: Jury can refuse to convict.
Conclusion: For this reason, a jury is one of the most important protections of a democracy.
13. Without forests, orangutans cannot survive. They spend more than 95 percent of their time
in the trees, which, along with vines and termites, provide more than 99 percent of their food.
Their only habitat is formed by the tropical rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra.
—Birute Galdikas, “The Vanishing Man of the Forest,” The New York Times,
6 January 2007
SOLUTION:
Premise: Their only habitat is formed by the tropical rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra
Conclusion: Without forests, orangutans cannot survive
14. Omniscience and omnipotence are mutually incompatible. If God is omniscient, he must
already know how he is going to intervene to change the course of history using his
omnipotence. But that means he can’t change his mind about his intervention, which means he
is not omnipotent.
—Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
SOLUTION:
Premise: Omniscience and omnipotence are mutually incompatible.
Conclusion: He can’t change his mind about his intervention, which means he is not omnipotent

15. Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but
more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that
emanates from God.
—Martin Luther, Last Sermon in Wittenberg, 17 January 1546
SOLUTION:
Premise: The greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things.
Conclusion: It is treating with contempt all that emanates from God.
NAME : CELESTE MAY A. CELESTIAL DATE: DECEMBER 01, 2022
COURSE & YEAR : BSBA – IV
SUBJECT : PHILOSOPHY 02
QUIZ 2

Some of the following passages contain explanations, some contain arguments, and some may
be interpreted as either an argument or an explanation. What is your judgment about the chief
function of each passage? What would have to be the case for the passage in question to be an
argument? To be an explanation? Where you find an argument, identify its premises and
conclusion. Where you find an explanation, indicate what is being explained and what the
explanation is.
EXAMPLE:
1. Humans have varying skin colors as a consequence of the distance our ancestors lived from
the Equator. It’s all about sun. Skin color is what regulates our body’s reaction to the sun and its
rays. Dark skin evolved to protect the body from excessive sun rays. Light skin evolved when
people migrated away from the Equator and needed to make vitamin D in their skin. To do that
they had to lose pigment. Repeatedly over history, many people moved dark to light and light
to dark. That shows that color is not a permanent trait.
—Nina Jablonski, “The Story of Skin,” The New York Times, 9 January 2007
SOLUTION:
This is essentially an explanation. What is being explained is the fact that humans have varying
skin colors. The explanation is that different skin colors evolved as humans came to live at
different distances from the Equator and hence needed different degrees of protection from the
rays of the sun. One might interpret the passage as an argument whose conclusion is that skin
color is not a permanent trait of all humans. Under this interpretation, all the propositions
preceding the final sentence of the passage serve as premises.

2. David Bernstein [in Only One Place of Redress: African Americans, Labor Regulations, and the
Courts from Reconstruction to the New Deal, 2001] places labor laws at the center of the
contemporary plight of black Americans. Many of these ostensibly neutral laws (e.g., licensing
laws, minimum wage laws, and collective bargaining laws) were either directly aimed at
stymieing black economic and social advancement or, if not so aimed, were quickly turned to
that use. A huge swath of the American labor market was handed over to labor unions from
which blacks, with few exceptions, were totally excluded. The now longstanding gap between
black and white unemployment rates dates precisely from the moment of government
intervention on labor’s behalf. In short (Bernstein argues) the victories of American labor were
the undoing of American blacks.
—Ken I. Kirsch, “Blacks and Labor—the Untold Story,” The Public Interest,
Summer 2002
EXPLANATION:
The victories of American labor were the undoing of American blacks. The explanation for this
is a huge swath of the American labor market was handed over to labor unions from which
blacks, with few exceptions, were totally excluded. The now longstanding gap between black
and white unemployment rates dates precisely from the moment of government intervention on
labor’s behalf.

3. Animals born without traits that led to reproduction died out, whereas the ones that
reproduced the most succeeded in conveying their genes to posterity. Crudely speaking, sex
feels good because over evolutionary time the animals that liked having sex created more
offspring than the animals that didn’t.
—R. Thornhill and C. T. Palmer, “Why Men Rape,” The Sciences, February 2000
EXPLANATION:
Reasons why sex feels good to animals: Sex feels good because Animals born without traits that
led to reproduction died out, whereas the ones that reproduced the most succeeded in
conveying their genes to posterity. Over evolutionary time the animals that liked having sex
created more offspring than the animals that didn’t.
4. Changes are real. Now, changes are only possible in time, and therefore time must be
something real.
—Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781),
“Transcendental Aesthetic,” section II
ARGUMENT:
Premises: Changes are real. Changes are only possible in time.
Conclusion: Time must be something real.
5. The nursing shortage in the United States has turned into a full-blown crisis. Because fewer
young people go into nursing, one-third of registered nurses in the United States are now over
50 years of age, and that proportion is expected to rise to 40 percent over the next decade.
Nurses currently practicing report high rates of job dissatisfaction, with one in five seriously
considering leaving the profession within the next five years. . .. Hospitals routinely cancel or
delay surgical cases because of a lack of nursing staff.
—Ronald Dworkin, “Where Have All the Nurses Gone?,”
The Public Interest, Summer 2002
ARGUMENT:
Premises: Fewer young people go into nursing. One-third of registered nurses in the United
States are now over 50 years of age. The proportion of nurses over 50 years of age is expected to
rise to 40 percent over the next decade. Nurses currently practicing report high rates of job
dissatisfaction, with one in five seriously considering leaving the profession within the next five
years. Hospitals routinely cancel or delay surgical cases because of a lack of nursing staff.
Conclusion: The nursing shortage in the United States has turned into a full-blown crisis.
6. To name causes for a state of affairs is not to excuse it. Things are justified or condemned by
their consequences, not by their antecedents.
—John Dewey, “The Liberal College and Its Enemies,” The Independent, 1924
ARGUMENT:
Premise: Things are justified or condemned by their consequences, not by their antecedents.
Conclusion: To name causes for a state of affairs is not to excuse it.
7. One may be subject to laws made by another, but it is impossible to bind oneself in any
matter which is the subject of one’s own free exercise of will. . . . It follows of necessity that the
king cannot be subject to his own laws. For this reason [royal] edicts and ordinances conclude
with the formula, “for such is our good pleasure.”
—Jean Bodin, Six Books of the Commonwealth, 1576
ARGUMENT:
Premises: The king cannot be subject of his own laws. Royal edicts and ordinances conclude with
the formula, “for such is our good pleasure.”
Conclusion: It is impossible to bind oneself in any matter which is the subject of one’s own free
exercise of will.

8. I like Wagner’s music better than anybody’s. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time
without people hearing what one says.
—Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
EXPLANATION:
Why the author likes Wagner’s music better than anybody’s. This is because Wagner’s music is
so loud that one can talk the whole time without people hearing what one says.

9. Three aspects of American society in recent decades make cheating more likely. First, there is
the rise of a market-drenched society, where monetary success is lauded above all else. Second,
there is the decline of religious, communal, and family bonds and norms that encourage
honesty. Finally, there is the absence of shame by those public figures who are caught in
dishonest or immoral activities. No wonder so many young people see nothing wrong with
cutting corners or worse.
—Howard Gardner, “More Likely to Cheat,” The New York Times, 9 October 2003
ARGUMENT:
Premises: There is the rise of a market-drenched society, where monetary success is lauded
above all else. There is the decline of religious, communal, and family bonds and norms that
encourage honesty. There is the absence of shame by those public figures who are caught in
dishonest or immoral activities
Conclusion: So many young people see nothing wrong with cutting corners or worse.
10. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted
blind.
—William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act 1, scene 1
EXPLANATION:
What is being explained is why Wing’d Cupid is painted blind. This is because love looks not
with the eyes, but with the mind.
11. An article in The New York Times, “Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways,” suggested
that the fact that women have less body hair than men is somehow related to greater sexual
selection pressure on women. A reader responded with the following letter:

Here is an elaboration for which I have no evidence but it is consistent with what we think we
know: sexual selection has probably strongly influenced numerous traits of both sexes.

Youthful appearance is more important to men when selecting a mate than it is to women. The
longer a woman can look young, the longer she will be sexually attractive and the more
opportunities she will have to bear offspring with desirable men. Hairlessness advertises youth.
Hence a greater sexual selection pressure on women to lose body hair.
—T. Doyle, “Less Is More,” The New York Times, 26 August 2003
ARGUMENT:
Premise: Youthful appearance is more important to men when selecting a mate than it is to
women. The longer a woman can look young, the longer she will be sexually attractive and the
more opportunities she will have to bear offspring with desirable men. Hairlessness advertises
youth.
Conclusion: Hence a greater sexual selection pressure on women to lose body hair.
12. MAD, mutually assured destruction, was effective in deterring nuclear attack right through
the cold war. Both sides had nuclear weapons. Neither side used them, because both sides knew
the other would retaliate in kind. This will not work with a religious fanatic [like Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran]. For him, mutual assured destruction is
not a deterrent, it is an inducement. We know already that Iran’s leaders do not give a damn
about killing their own people in great numbers. We have seen it again and again. In the final
scenario, and this applies all the more strongly if they kill large numbers of their own people,
they are doing them a favor. They are giving them a quick free pass to heaven and all its
delights.
—Bernard Lewis, quoted in Commentary, June 2007
ARGUMENT:
Premises: For a religious fanatic, mutual assured destruction is not a deterrent, it is an
inducement. Iran’s leaders do not give a damn about killing their own people in great numbers.
This applies all the more strongly if they kill large numbers of their own people, they are doing
them a favor; they are giving them a quick free pass to heaven and all its delights.
Conclusion: Mutually assured destruction as a deterrent to nuclear attack will not work with a
religious fanatic.
13. About a century ago, we discovered that planetary orbits are not stable in four or more
dimensions, so if there were more than three space dimensions, planets would not orbit a sun
long enough for life to originate. And in one or two space dimensions, neither blood flow nor
large
numbers of neuron connections can exist. Thus, interesting life can exist only in three
dimensions.
—Gordon Kane, “Anthropic Questions,” Phi Kappa Phi Journal, Fall 2002
ARGUMENT:
Premises: Planetary orbits are not stable in four or more dimensions. If there were more than
three space dimensions, planets would not orbit a sun long enough for life to originate. In one
or two space dimensions, neither blood flow nor large numbers of neuron connections can exist.
Conclusion: Interesting life can exist only in three dimensions.

14. Translators and interpreters who have helped United States troops and diplomats now want
to resettle in the United States. They speak many strategically important languages of their
region. The United States does not have an adequate number of interpreters and translators
who are proficient in these languages. Therefore, we need them. Q.E.D.
—Oswald Werner, “Welcome the Translators,” The New York Times,
3 November 2007
ARGUMENT:
Premises: Translators and interpreters speak many strategically important languages of their
region. The United States does not have an adequate number of interpreters and translators
who are proficient in these languages.
Conclusion: Therefore, we need them.
15. The Treasury Department’s failure to design and issue paper currency that is readily
distinguishable to blind and visually impaired individuals violates Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act, which provides that no disabled person shall be “subjected to discrimination
under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency.”
—Judge James Robertson, Federal District Court for the District of Columbia,
American Council of the Blind v. Sec. of the Treasury, No. 02-0864 (2006)
SOLUTION:
This is explanation because there is no argument as to why visually impaired needs paper
currency. What is being explained is that the blind and visually impaired individuals violates
Section 504 that no person is “subjected to discrimination under any program or activity

16. Rightness [that is, acting so as to fulfill one’s duty] never guarantees moral goodness. For an
act may be the act which the agent thinks to be his duty, and yet be done from an indifferent or
bad motive, and therefore be morally indifferent or bad.
—Sir W. David Ross, Foundations of Ethics
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939)

SOLUTION:
This is an argument because it gives some explanation towards the conclusion
17. Man did not invent the circle or the square or mathematics or the laws of physics. He
discovered them. They are immutable and eternal laws that could only have been created by a
supreme mind: God. And since we have the ability to make such discoveries, man’s mind must
possess an innate particle of the mind of God. To believe in God is not “beyond reason.”
—J. Lenzi, “Darwin’s God,” The New York Times Magazine, 18 March 2007
SOLUTION:
This is an argument because it gives events that lead to the conclusion using facts.
18. Many of the celebratory rituals [of Christmas], as well as the timing of the holiday, have
their origins outside of, and may predate, the Christian commemoration of the birth of Jesus.
Those traditions, at their best, have much to do with celebrating human relationships and the
enjoyment
of the goods that this life has to offer. As an atheist I have no hesitation in embracing the
holiday and joining with believers and nonbelievers alike to celebrate what we have in
common.
—John Teehan, “A Holiday Season for Atheists, Too,” The New York Times,
24 December 2006
SOLUTION:
This is explanatory because it gives information about the background and the history of
Christmas.
19. All ethnic movements are two-edged swords. Beginning benignly, and sometimes necessary
to repair injured collective psyches, they often end in tragedy, especially when they turn
political, as illustrated by German history.
—Orlando Patterson, “A Meeting with Gerald Ford,”
The New York Times, 6 January 2007
SOLUTION:
This is the argument because it gives details to shows the conclusion is true.

20. That all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be
equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable
consciousness. A peasant has not the capacity for having equal happiness with a philosopher.
—Samuel Johnson, in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, 1766

SOLUTION:
This is explanation because it tells us why happiness is not equal for everybody.

NAME : CELESTE MAY A. CELESTIAL DATE: DECEMBER 01, 2022


COURSE & YEAR : BSBA – IV
SUBJECT : PHILOSOPHY 02

WEEK NO. 8
Guide Questions for the Journals of Learning
Instruction: For each of the argument descriptions provided below, construct a deductive
argument (on any subject of your choosing) having only two premises.

1. A valid argument with one true premise, one false premise, and a false conclusion
Hidilyn Diaz is an athlete.
All athletes are volleyball players.
Therefore, Hidilyn Diaz is volleyball player.
2. A valid argument with one true premise, one false premise, and a true conclusion
All fishes can mammals.
All whales are fishes.
Therefore, all whales are mammals.
3. An invalid argument with two true premises and a false conclusion
All government employees are PAG- IBIG members.
All private school teachers are PAG- IBIG members.
Therefore, all government employees are private school teachers.
4. An invalid argument with two true premises and a true conclusion
All Lady Spikers are Lasallians.
Ms. Espiritu is a Lasallian.
Therefore, Ms. Espiritu is a Lady Spiker.
5. A valid argument with two false premises and a true conclusion
All students are girls.
Teachers are a whale.
Therefore, teachers are human.
6. An invalid argument with two false premises and a true conclusion
All security guard have no gun.
Mr. Quizon has no gun.
Mr. Quizon is a security guard.
7. An invalid argument with one true premise, one false premise, and a true conclusion
Not all artists are comedian.
Vice Ganda is not an artist.
Therefore, Vice Ganda is a comedian.
8. A valid argument with two true premises and a true conclusion

All Doctors are professionals.


Shine is a doctor.
Therefore, Shine is a professional.

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