Argument48 【CSMY作文互改小组】第三组第10次作业

meichengyuUID: 2121098

TOPIC: ARGUMENT48 - The following appeared in a newspaper article published in the country of Corpora.

"Twenty years ago, one half of all citizens in Corpora met the standards for adequate physical fitness as then defined by the national advisory board on physical fitness. Today, the board says that only one quarter of all citizens are adequately fit and suggests that spending too much time using computers may be the reason. But since overall fitness levels are highest in regions of Corpora where levels of computer ownership are also highest, it is clear that using computers has not made citizens less physically fit. Instead, as shown by this year's unusually low expenditures on fitness-related products and services, the recent decline in the economy is most likely the cause, and fitness levels will improve when the economy does."
WORDS: 448          TIME: 0:30:00          DATE: 2007-1-27

Citing several unfounded assumptions as well as some dubious evidence and presenting some simple analysis, the arguer asserts that the recent decline in the economy is most likely to cause the decline of physical fitness and the fitness levels will improve when the economy does. However, we do not have to look very far to see the line of reasoning suffers from several flaws which will be discussed as follows.

To begin with, the author fails to establish the causal relationship between the physical fitness and the economy. There is no evidence to demonstrate that expenditures on fitness-related products and services could increase the physical fitness of people certainly. Factors that may influence the fitness are various. It is possible that the environment in the region that is highly polluted, the criminal rate's increasing and the wide unemployment are probably more apt to lead to the result of declined fitness than the expenditures. Thus, without providing such evidence, the conclusion from the author about the relation between the economy and fitness is baseless and unconvincing.

In addition, there is another flaw which weakens the logic of the argument as well. Lacking information about the time of using computers in regions of Corpora with the highest fitness levels, it is hasty to rule out the factor of using computers too much just because of the highest levels of computer ownership in the regions. It is also possible that though the people own a lot of computers, they do not use them frequently as the people in other regions. So ruling out the using computer too much is unwarranted and hasty from the inadequate data the arguer showed.

Last but not least, before I come to my own conclusion it is necessary to point out other factors may also undermine the argument. On one hand, the standards for adequate physical fitness defined by the national advisory board may probably out of date and can not be used to evaluate people’s fitness today. On another hand, no evidence show that the fitness level of the region which is the highest does not decline. It is highly possible that the fitness level of that region was already the highest in the past, but because of using computers too much it declines sharply though it is also the highest. Without ruling out such possibilities, the arguer could not arrive at the conclusion either.

All in all, although the argument seems plausible, it is neither sound nor persuasive. The evidence cited in this argument did not lend strong support to the author's claim. To make it logically acceptable, the arguer should have to provide much more specific evidence concerning to the factors mentioned above.