argument140 2006.2.25--mars作业

iven19821005UID: 2160156

140The following appeared in a report of the Committee on Faculty Promotions and Salaries at Elm City University.

"During her seventeen years as a professor of botany, Professor Thomas has proved herself to be well worth her annual salary of $50,000. Her classes are among the largest at the university, demonstrating her popularity among students. Moreover, the money she has brought to the university in research grants has exceeded her salary in each of the last two years. Therefore, in consideration of Professor Thomas' demonstrated teaching and research abilities, we recommend that she receive a $10,000 raise and a promotion to Department Chairperson; without such a raise and promotion, we fear that Professor Thomas will leave Elm City University for another college." 寄托家园4R+xm.f;E~

提纲：
1、        因果性和相关性混淆，听课的人多可能是因为他的课是必修课，而且这课就他一人上
2、        她当了17年的教授，只有两年的赞助是超过她的薪水的，那么还有15年干什么啦，她的真实水平就只得怀疑了,况且其他教授的赞助可能比她高多了，她是最少的一个。
3、        系主任不是会拉钱，听课人多就可以当的，比如需要协调能力，…… 能力
4、        Begging the question 推论是从作者自己给出的假设条件推出的

字数：504

In the analysis, the arguer claims that Professor Thomas is quite excellent so that the university has to offer her addition salaries and a promotion in order to attract this great treasure. To justify his conclusion, the arguer provides the evidence that Professor Thomas’s classes are the largest at the university, and cites the quantity of subsidy she received to indicate her distinguished ability. Meanwhile, the arguer also assumes that without more salaries and promotion, the professor will go to other collages. A careful examination of this argument would reveal how groundless the conclusion is.

To begin with, the arguer makes a severe fallacy of confusing causal relation with correlation. The photo that the arguer provides is how large Professor Thomas’s class is, but fails to introduce whether her class is a required curriculum or not, and whether this curriculum is taught by only one professor or not. Then, if the curriculum is an obliged lesson and only Professor Thomas is required to teach this lesson. The causal relation between the scale of class and her eminent popularity is far from reasonable.

Secondly, the financial support of Professor Thomas is cited into indicate the distinguished ability of her. But, I can not agree less on this point, for lacking enough evidence to make me convince. Since the professor has worked for seventeen years, what was the behavior of another fifteen years? If her behavior is always such excellent, why the arguer does not express in the content? So, the accomplishment of the Professor in the fifteen years is doubtful. Further more, the arguer ignores to prove the quantity of financial support is much bigger than other professors. Then, there is a possibility that Professor Thomas’s subsidize is the lowest in his department, the money she got is due to the strategy of government for developing education, because her situation in earlier fifteen years is not indicated to prove her ability.

In addition, another negligence the arguer made is that the arguer fails to construe the exact abilities a Department Chairperson needs. Fiscal support and popularity are not the key capabilities that a department chairperson should maintain, actually, a dean may need the ability of communication, organization, etc. So the evidences that the arguer used to prove the necessity of Professor’s promotion are far from enough, then hardly, can the arguer persuade me on his opinion.

Last but not least, begging the question is another magnificent fallacy the arguer committed. At first the step arguer assumes that Professor Thomas is a distinguished professor, therefore she will leave Elm City University without additional salaries and promotion. However, hardly can doubtful assume deduce correct conclusion, so the question of whether Professor Thomas will leave or not should be analyzed seriously later.

In sum, this argument is a rough one that lack solid evidence to prove that Professor Thomas is a quite excellent professor who is worthy of much attention. To fortify this argument, more information about her background and her overall abilities should be provided.

[ 本帖最后由 staralways 于 2006-2-26 23:52 编辑 ]