JCCMI- Phil Week 4 Dis 1

 The Watch and the Watchmaker ATTACHED

Post to Week 4 - Discussion 1 a critique of an argument found in “The Watch and the Watchmaker” and “A Critique of the Teleological Argument”.. Your critique should claim that the argument you’re criticizing either (i) has a false premise or (ii) is invalid. If it has a false premise, construct a deductively valid argument in which the conclusion entails the falsity of the premise you’re arguing against. If it is invalid, construct a counter-case.

A counter-case is an argument with the same form as the argument you’re criticizing but in which the premises are obviously true and the conclusion is obviously false. The argument on the right is a counter-case of the argument on the left—it shows that  the form of argument used on the left is not such that the truth of the conclusion follows with necessity from the truth of the premises. 

 Argument A

All senators are citizens

Some citizens are from Ohio

Therefore: some senators are from Ohio

Argument B

All cats are mammals

Some mammals are dogs

Therefore: some dogs are cats

These arguments have the same form in that the logic of each argument turns on the relations indicated between the terms “all”, “some”, and “are”. Notice that you can replace all other terms in each argument, and they will look the same:

                                                                             Argument form

                                                                        All S are C

                                                                     Some C are O

                                                              Therefore: some S are O