argument51 求拍

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题目：ARGUMENT51 - The following appeared in a medical newsletter.

"Doctors have long suspected that secondary infections may keep some patients from healing quickly after severe muscle strain. This hypothesis has now been proved by preliminary results of a study of two groups of patients. The first group of patients, all being treated for muscle injuries by Dr. Newland, a doctor who specializes in sports medicine, took antibiotics regularly throughout their treatment. Their recuperation time was, on average, 40 percent quicker than typically expected. Patients in the second group, all being treated by Dr. Alton, a general physician, were given sugar pills, although the patients believed they were taking antibiotics. Their average recuperation time was not significantly reduced. Therefore, all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain would be well advised to take antibiotics as part of their treatment."
字数：474
用时：00:59:25
日期：2010-7-13 0:36:40

In this argument, the author draws a conclusion that all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain would take antibiotics as part of treatment. While it appears to be appealing and reasonable on the surface, close scrutiny of the argument could reveal that these evidences and reasoning lend little credible support to the conclusion.

One major problem with this argument is that the arguer ignores the discrepancy in healthy condition of different group of patients who were received different treatment with two doctors. The two groups of patients might be varied in physiques, the second group of patients who take the sugar pills are highly possible to heal more slowly than first group no matter what pills the different group of patients taken. Perhaps one group of patients are actually strong even if their muscle injured severely without taking antibiotics. Without excluding the possible explanation that the two groups of patients are the same healthy condition, the argument could not convince me.

Even if we concede the unwarranted assumption that two groups of patients are the same physical condition, we cannot overlook the other vulnerable assumption has no evidence to demonstrate. Another pivotal problem against this reasoning involves that absence of evidence to validate that they all suffers from the secondary infections induced by muscle strain. Mere fact that patients suffers from muscle strain, however, is not sufficient to guarantee the patients all have secondary infections, since the given information tells us infections may occur in some patients rather than all patients. Apparently, there are likely to be some patients who have not suffered from the injections. Therefore, the arguer is supposed to offer more specific information concerning the patient’s medical records in order to confirm that they all suffer from secondary infections.

Even assuming that all patients have secondary infections and the same physical constitution, the author, in fact, utilizes vague medical data which is derived from comparison experiment, which undermines the credibility of the whole argument. Considering that the actual and precise recuperation time has not been informed yet. The argument could not draw any sound conclusion. Unless we are informed that actual amount of typically expected time and the not significantly reduced time, we have the very reason to doubt the reliability of this comparison experiment. These time data are too vague to judge which treatment is more efficient, thus we could hardly evaluate the effects of different treatment, let alone all patients should take antibiotics as part of their treatment.

To sum up, the argument mentioned above lacks credibility for the reason that conclusion relies on the inaccurate evidences and unwarranted assumption. The argument could be improved by ruling out other possible reasons for the supposed causal relationship. Additionally, to better bolster the argument, the author should provide more persuasive evidence and specific information regarding the patient’s constitution and recuperation time.