QUESTION TEXT: Philosopher: As many prominent physicists have suggested,…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: Physical objects must be theoretical constructs.
REASONING: Many physicists have suggested that energy is a theoretical construct. The theory of relativity says there is no essential distinction between energy and mass, so mass is also theoretical. And physical objects are only mass and energy.
ANALYSIS: This argument is like saying “concrete powder doesn’t firmly hold its shape, and water also does not, so concrete (which is concrete powder and water) must also not firmly hold its shape”. Something that is true of the parts of something is not always true of the combined thing. This is a flaw in the argument’s reasoning.
Another example of this reasoning is “1 is an odd number, so if you add two 1s to make 2, it should still be odd”. Things can be more than the combination of their parts, especially when you get into chemistry and physics.
___________
- It doesn’t matter if other things are composed of mass and energy. We aren’t talking about those things here.
- CORRECT. See above.
- The argument is not assuming that energy and mass have different features, so this is incorrect.
- The author has not claimed that all theoretical constructs share features. The author is solely concerned with categorizing things as theoretical constructs.
- This answer is very appealing. However, the author never claims that the reason energy is theoretical is because physicists say so. The author is stating that energy is theoretical, while also noting that many physicists have suggested that same thing.
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