PHIL 447N Week 6 Course Project: Rough Draft (Human Eating Habits)
This week’s written assignment project is found with full directions in the Doc Sharing tab. A brief description is located in the Course Project tab under Course Home. You are to write the rough draft of your Course project. Your paper should be three to five pages double-spaced of the body text. The paper requires a minimum of five, good quality outside sources. APA formatting required.
PHIL-447N Week 6 Discussion Question 1 – Inductive Reasoning (graded)
Inductive Reasoning In America, we are bombarded by opinion polls. Such polls use the method of inductive generalizing from a sample, presuming that the answers given by a small number of respondents represent the attitudes of American voters as a whole. Do a search on the Internet for a recent opinion poll. Paste the results in your discussion response. Look at the report of the poll results and discuss how strong you believe these poll results are. Refer to such aspects of inductive generalizing as the sampling frame, how representative the poll sample was, and how biased the poll might be.
PHIL 447N Week 6 Discussion Question 2 – Hypothesis (graded)
According to the textbook, a hypothesis is “a causal explanation offered for further investigation or testing.” The book provides several methods for testing the quality of a hypothesis. Choose one of the statements below and use one or more of the tests provided in the textbook to evaluate the quality of the hypothesis. Identify the hypothesis in the statement, and then say why it is or is not a good one.
- There were objects flying everywhere in that room. Either an earthquake or ghosts could have made those objects move. Since there was no earthquake reported, it must have been ghosts.
- Crop circles are complicated, symmetrical designs formed in grain fields through depressing grain stalks. Because of their complexity and symmetry, they cannot be natural phenomena. These crop circles appear overnight. Since it would take far too long and too much complex planning for one or two people to make these designs, which can be seen only from above, aliens from outer space must be making them.
- The other day, I was walking in the mall and suddenly remembered an old school friend whom I had not spoken to in years. Not five minutes later, there I was face to face with my old friend. There must have been some deep karmic connection that drew us together that day.
- Studies show that families who regularly eat their meals together have children who perform better than average at school. Clearly, communal family meals are essential to student success.
PHIL 447N Week 6 Quiz (MCQs)
- Question : (TCOs 1 and 5) In Chapter 11, we learned about three forms of inductive reasoning. Consider the following example. “I spent last night at that hotel and was never once bitten by a bedbug. There are no bedbugs in that hotel.” In this inductive argument, based on the speaker’s experience, which form of reasoning is being used?
- Question : (TCOs 1 and 5) In Chapter 11, we learned about three forms of inductive reasoning. Consider the following example.
“Japan has tight immigration laws and their economy is good. The same kinds of laws could work in the U.S.”
In this inductive argument, which form of reasoning is being used?
- Question : (TCOs 6 and 7) In Chapter 7, we learned how to identify inductive fallacies, which are arguments that offer only weak support for their conclusions because their evidence is either weak or biased. Consider the following example.
“Hardworking Americans need change now!”
The inductive fallacy being used is:
- Question : (TCO 2) In Chapter 7, we learned how to identify inductive fallacies, which are arguments that offer only weak support for their conclusions because their evidence is either weak or biased. Consider the following example
“I’d better not order the chocolate cake because if I do then the next thing you know I’ll eat everything on the desert menu, then I’ll gain so much weight I won’t be able to move.”
The inductive fallacy used is:
- Question : (TCO 5) In Chapter 11, we learned three principles for forming causal hypotheses. It is important to remember that these principles only suggest, but do not establish a causal connection. Consider the following example.
“There used to be no obesity problem in America. Studies in the past few years show that children nowadays are consuming significantly more calories than did children of prior decades. What children eat is a highly probable cause of increased obesity.”
In this causal hypothesis, the principle used is: