QUESTION TEXT: Concerned citizen: The mayor, an outspoken critic…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: We can’t afford not to repair the town hall.
REASONING: No reasoning is given for how the town can get the money to repair town hall and meet its other commitments.
ANALYSIS: The citizen and the mayor mean different things when they say “afford”. The mayor means “we don’t have the money”, the citizen means something like “it would be a sin not to save town hall.”
___________
- There’s nothing wrong with an emotional appeal. There are many things we do that are important for emotional reasons. Emotional appeals are only a problem if we ignore other considerations.
- CORRECT. The mayor means we don’t have the money. The citizen ignores this argument, and uses a different meaning for “afford”: it’s of supreme importance to repair town hall.
- Wha? The citizen is arguing against the mayor.
- Everyone agrees that repairs would be expensive, especially the mayor.
- The mayor says “outdated”, and that means he agrees the building needs repairs. And likewise, the mayor says luxury: he means we have more important priorities.
The mayor isn’t making the argument.
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