Argument200 morally同主题 必回拍

morallreyUID: 2191298

0610G同主题写作第十期——Argument200

【题目】
Statistics collected from dentists indicate that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentist. This evidence suggests that men are more likely to be distressed about having dental work done than women are. Thus, dentists who advertise to attract patients should target the male consumer and emphasize both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients.
WORDS: 386         TIME: 30         DATE: 2006-7-28

To justify the recommendation that dentists should pay their attention on male consumer as well as emphasize their specialized techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients, the arguer states in the argument a survey evinces that men visit dentists three time more than women. In addition, it is suggested that men are prone to be harassed by tooth paints. At first glance, the reasoning seems plausible. Close examination of the argument, however, reveal that it suffers from several fallacies, as discussed below.

To begin with, the statistics collected from dentists is unreliable. Obviously, there is no specific information concerning how these statistics are got. It is entirely possible that the statistics do not cover a long period of time and was obtained from merely 3 or 4 dentists, which is absolutely a small number to be representative enough to reflect the general condition of faint of men and women. Further, if the dentists are most women, then the statistics would also be open to doubt, since women, more often than not, is not very patient about male patients due to male patients' hash attitude. In short, without evidence proving that the statistics represents the true state, further assumption is meaningless.

Moreover, the arguer unwarrantedly considers the number of patients who faint while visiting dentists is caused by poor dental work. In fact, the arguer fails to take into other possibilities that may interpret the situation. For instance, perhaps the faint of men was not the result of the dentists' work, but merely because they feel worry or anxious in the dentists'. Then, the assumption above would be more or less undermined.

Finally, even if the arguer can substantiate the forgoing assumption, the assertion that dentists should emphasize both the effectiveness and their aesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients is unwarranted. Since maybe the patients do not feel nervous or suffering, but only because they are not fit in the environment of the clinics, in such a case, such advisement is of no use.

In summary, the argument is dubious at best as it stands. To support the proposition put forward by the arguer, specific information about the survey as well as ruling out other possibilities is required. Before this, the suggestion should be rejected.