Logical Reasoning

PT113 · S3 · Q16 Because addictive drugs are physically harmful

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Because addictive drugs are physically harmful, their use by athletes is never justified.

Conclusion (therefore)

The use of nonaddictive drugs by athletes should not be prohibited.

rephrase: Athletes should be allowed to use nonaddictive drugs.

Evidence

People objecting that these drugs are unnatural forget that almost everything in sports is unnatural, such as high-tech running shoes and padded boxing gloves, yet none of these are prohibited for being unnatural.

We should be attending to more serious problems in sports that cause unnecessary deaths and injuries.

Evaluate

The final idea of, "What we SHOULD be talking about is X!" is logically trash. We can talk about whatever we want to talk about. Suppose someone says, We would say Yes, murder is more serious. But we don't have to choose. Right now we're talking about whether burglary should be okay.

So we should probably ignore that claim and focus on the issue at hand, whether athletes should be allowed to use nonaddictive drugs.

GIVEN THAT we let athletes use other unnatural things (like fancy shoes and gloves and equipment)

HOW CAN WE ARGUE THAT athletes should not be able to use unnatural nonaddictive drugs?

Well, the easiest argument would be,

The author was Assuming a Difference, that nonaddictive drugs aren't harmful.

Goal

Let's find an answer that provides a compelling reason to prohibit the use of nonaddictive drugs by athletes.

16.

Which one of the following statements, if true, would be the strongest challenge to the author's conclusion?

  1. Massive doses of aspirin and

    Unclear Impact

    One might cite enhanced performance as a reason we SHOULD let athletes use nonaddictive drugs (others might cite it as a reason we shouldn't, because it would give an unfair non-sporting advantage to the athletes willing to take these drugs).

    11% picked this

  2. Addictive drugs are just as

    Irrelevant Comparison

    We know that all drugs in this conversation are unnatural. What we'd like to know is whether nonaddictive drugs are just as harmful as addictive drugs are.

    6% picked this

  3. Unnecessary deaths and injuries occur

    No Impact

    Pointing to the obvious common sense idea that deaths occur outside of sports does nothing to help us argue that nonaddictive drugs should be prohibited among athletes.

    1% picked this

  4. There would be more unnecessary

    No Impact

    This statement defends the utility of equipment in preventing injuries but doesn't give us way to argue that nonaddictive drugs should be prohibited.

    9% picked this

  5. Correct

    Taking massive doses of aspirin

    Why this is right

    If taking massive doses of aspirin or vitamins can be physically harmful, this directly challenges the author's rationale that nonaddictive drugs should be allowed. She supports forbidding addictive drugs because of their harm, so by the same logic she should support forbidding nonaddictive drugs. She was assuming a difference (that nonaddictive drugs aren't harmful), but this answer contradicts that assumption.

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    73% picked this

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