【超越自我】8月19日argument72

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Argument：72. In measuring electrical activity in different parts of the brain, researchers found that people who describe themselves as generally happy have more activity in the left prefrontal lobe of their brains than do other people. Therefore, a medication for stimulating the left prefrontal lobe of the brain would be an effective treatment for clinical depression.

In this argument the speaker notes that we should use a medication for stimulating the left prefrontal lobe of the brain to treat clinical depression, because the people describe themselves as generally happy have more activity in the left prefrontal lobe of their brain. Reasonable as it seems, the argument has several logical flaws.

To begin with, the people who take part in the survey are not reliable. Each person has its distinct standard to measure happiness. The people who say that they are happy are not really in a good mood most of the time. It is possible because he want to be a good example for his children. Thus the speaker’s survey can not convince me that the people who admits happy are the people who are really happy. Lacking of the evidence, the argument does not hold the water.

In addition, even if we assume that all the people are honesty to express their feelings, the author fails to rule out the possibility of activity in the left prefrontal love of their brains due to happy. Actually, it is entirely possible it is happy that leads to activity in the left prefrontal lobe of brains. If so, how the author rely on such a confusion reason to conclude.

Besides, the author fails to consider the feasibility of the solution. On one hand, depression is a mental problem, it is necessary to use the some other treatments, such as taking part in a group of the same syndrome, keeping a dog. On the other hand, there is no evidence to lend any support that the medication treatment has no harm to human being. It is possible that the problem this medicine creates more than it solves.

In sum, 1) without ruling out the possibility of the respondents’ dishonesty, we can not go any further in this problem. 2) To bolster the argument that medication treatment is useful, the author need more evidence that stimulate left brain can make people happy. 3) It is necessary to prove the safety of the medicine when it is used to treat depression.