【Flyer杀G】小组-7.20 Argument46, by Sean

柏拉图的世界UID: 2581296

TOPIC: ARGUMENT46 - Although black bears are common in the eastern Canadian province of Labrador, grizzly bears-often similar in color, but much larger-were believed to exist only in the western provinces. Despite a nineteenth-century explorer's account of having startled and narrowly escaped from a grizzly bear deep in the woods in Labrador, modern scientists find no physical evidence that grizzly bears have ever lived in Labrador. But recent research into the language and legends of the Innu, a people who have lived in Labrador for thousands of years, reveals that their language has words for two different kinds of bears, and their ancient legends attribute different characteristics to the two kinds of bears. Therefore, there probably were grizzly bears in Labrador, and the explorer's account probably accurately identified the bear.
WORDS: 426
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2010/7/21 17:22:25

This argument asserts that grizzly bears probably existed in Labrador, as an opposite statement to scientists’ previous notion. In order to support his/her conclusion, the author mainly cites an explorer's account of confronting grizzly bear and a recent discovery that there are words for two different kinds of bears in legends and language of Innu. However, several logic flaws have undermined the author's reasoning.

Firstly casting a look as the former evidence of an explorer's record, we can hardly confirm that it lends adequate support to the author's conclusion. Granted that the explorer didn't lie in his/her record, he/she still probably made a mistake about the type of bear he/she confronted. That is because the explorer was startled, and therefore he/she might have failed to recognize the true color and size of that bear in under that strain.

Even if the explore wasn't wrong and that bear was grizzly bear, it would not have to indicate that the grizzly bears had lived in Labrador. Probably this bear actually lived in western provinces but got lost in Labrador’s forests then. After all, a single bear's appearance cannot demonstrate a group of this animals' existence in a particular territory.

When it comes to the fresh evidence that words for two different kinds of bears existed in legends and language of Innu, the author still fails to justify his/her reasoning. Simply put, the author doesn't tell us what was the specific contents of these words. Lacking this information, we cannot make sure these words are representatives for the two particular kinds of black bears and grizzly bears. Maybe these words happen to denote other kinds of bears, with different characteristics other than color or size.

Even assuming that the words in language and legends of Innu are for black bears and grizzly bears, it does not necessarily imply that the bears lived in the place of Labrador. Probably people have ever emigrated from other places, say western provinces in Canadian, and what their words describe is just the grizzly bears in their previous inhabits. Under the condition that the inhabitants in Innu have been living in Labrador without any large migration, we still hold justification to suppose that probably a few of those inhabitants traveled to western provinces, therefore found grizzly bears there. And then they came back, telling others about their observation of that kind of bears special for most of inhabitant. Consequently, those events were recorded in their legends, just as researchers discovered.

To sum up, judging from evidences the author provides here, we cannot be convinced that his/her assertion is agreeable. In order to make his/her argument sounder, the author could provide more details about the explorer’s records and words in legends and language of Innu. Other new more evidences would help a lot as well.