ARGUMENT2 [076G飞跃小组]zengyouwen第7次作业

zengyouwenUID: 2284999

TOPIC: ARGUMENT2 - The following appeared in a letter sent by a committee of homeowners from the Deerhaven Acres to all homeowners in Deerhaven Acres.

"Seven years ago, homeowners in nearby Brookville community adopted a set of restrictions on how the community's yards should be landscaped and what colors the exteriors of homes should be painted. Since then, average property values have tripled in Brookville. In order to raise property values in Deerhaven Acres, we should adopt our own set of restrictions on landscaping and housepainting."
WORDS: 348          TIME: 上午 12:30:00          DATE: 2007-3-2

In this letter, the committee suggests that the Deerhaven Acres should follow the Brookville community's way to adopt a set of restrictions  on landscaping and housepainting.To illustrate this the arguer cites the evidence that because of these similar actions taken by Brookville seven years ago, the average property values have tripled there. However, the argument fails as it suffers from several fallacies as follows.

The first problem that undermines the argument is that the false analogy of the argument. The tripled property value happened seven years ago, then the situation is different from now.Furthermore,the author overlooks the adjustment of the inflation, is the tripled average value the same as the actual three times as the former  property value is not known. In addition, the two districts' condition is different from each other, the action may be effective in Brookville but may not be useful in the Deerhaven Acres. Lacking such evidence the arguer's conclusion is incredible as mentioned above.

Second, the author commits a fallacy of overlooking other possible alternatives to the low property values in the district of Deerhaven Acres. Maybe it is not for the reason that the landscaped yards and the colors of the exteriors of homes painted. But for other possibilities such as the management of the authority, the economic conditions and so on. Thus would make the assumption of the author be lack of convince.

Third, the author fails to establish the causal relationship between the raise of the average of the property value and the set of restrictions on community's yards and the exteriors of homes. Because there maybe other possible reasons that cause the property value tripled, but not the actions of the Brookville Community's newly adopted restrictions. They just happened at the same time but may not have the causal relationship. Thus the hasty generalization of doing the same thing in Deerhaven Acres will be unreasonable.

In sum, the argument fails as the weakpoints mentioned above, thus to make it move convincing and strongly supported, more evidence should be given concerning the causal relationship between the restrictions and the raise of the property value.