Objections, Replies, Concluding Assesments

Consider the following argument:

Police brutality has occurred. If there is a riot happening, then police brutality must have occurred. Therefore, there is a riot happening.

Which of the following is a good objection to its validity?

It is the fallacy of affirming the consequent

Even granting the premises, police brutality could occur without a riot happening

Consider the following argument:

No police brutality has occurred. If police brutality has occurred, then there is a riot happening. So there must not be a riot happening.

Which of the following is a good objection to its validity?

Even granting the premises, a riot could happen without police brutality having occurred

It is the fallacy of denying the antecedent.

Consider the following argument.

If police brutality has occurred, then there is a riot happening. Police brutality has occurred. Therefore, a riot is happening.

Which of the following would be a good objection to the soundness of this argument?

Police brutality has not actually occurred.

Consider the following question.

If there is a riot happening, then police brutality has occurred. But no police brutality has occurred. Therefore, no riot is happening.

Which of the following is a good objection to the soundness of this argument?

Police brutality has occurred, as evidence by body camera footage , Even if a riot is happening, police brutality has not necessarily occurred

Which of the following objections contradicts this claim? If there is a riot happening, then police brutality has occurred.

Even if there is a riot happening, it is still not necessarily the case that police brutality has occurred

Which of the following objections contradicts this claim? Every person has the right to life.

It is false that every person has the right to life, because some people lose that right through their own misdeeds.

Which of the following objections undermines this claim? Every person has the right to life.

There is no good evidence for the claim that every person has the right to life, because it rests on mere intuition.

Consider this argument:

Democratic societies are not inclined towards philosophy. America is a democratic society. So America is not inclined towards philosophy.

Which of the following is NOT a good objection

America certainly is inclined towards philosophy, as shown by the popularity of philosophical movies like “The Matrix” and “Interstellar.”

Consider the following argument:

Americans mostly get their ideas from popular culture. Popular culture mostly expresses shallow ideas. So Americans mostly have shallow ideas.

Which of the following is NOT a good objection?

The claim that “Popular culture mostly expresses shallow ideas” is true for some people but not for others.

Doesn’t popular culture express at least some intelligent ideas?

Many Americans have profound, carefully considered ideas.

Consider the following argument:

Most Americans spend several hours a day on social media. If most Americans spends several hours a day on social media, then they are unable to focus their attention on philosophical texts. So most Americans are unable to focus their attention on philosophical texts.

Which of the following is NOT a good objection?

If Americans really spent several hours a day on social media, how would they ever get any work done?

Most Americans are able to focus their attention on philosophical texts, but they simply choose not to do so.