A. Identify the premise(s) and conclusion of the following Conductive Argument, as well as any counter considerations. Determine whether the argument is cogent, giving reasons for your answer.
The campus wide ban on smoking is ridiculous. The university should not be placing prohibitions on practices that are not illegal. Whilst it is true that second hand smoke can be bad for your health this is only an issue for enclosed indoor spaces. Smoking in the open air on campus grounds doesn’t harm anyone else’s health.
B. For each of the following passages, identify and state the conclusion (if there is one). If the passage contains an inductive argument, state both its conclusion and what kind of inductive argument it is. Briefly justify your answer. If the passage does not contain an argument or if the argument is not inductive, briefly explain why.
(i) The coffee at the café is always better on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have noticed that the owner of the café usually works on the coffee machine on those days. The owner probably knows something about making coffee that his staff do not.
(ii) The last three times that Tom has hosted a party he played awful 90’s pop music the whole night. Tom is hosting a party again this weekend, so the music will probably be bad 90’s pop again.
(iii) It is reasonable to infer that animals experience emotional states in ways that are similar to humans. This is because many of the physical changes that are characteristically associated with the different human emotional states—for example, changes in facial expression, muscle tone, posture, gait, and heart rate— are also present in the behaviour of animals in similar circumstances.
