Logical Reasoning

PT135 · S2 · Q10 Samuel: Because communication via

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Samuel: Because communication via computer is usually conducted privately and anonymously between people who would otherwise interact in person, it contributes to the dissolution, not the creation, of lasting communal bonds.

Samuel's Claims

1. Communication via computer is usually private and anonymous, between people who would otherwise interact in person

2. Communication via computer contributes to the dissolution, not the creation of lasting communal bonds.

3. Due to the word "Because" connecting Sam's two claims, we also know Sam assumes a causal relationship between the two claims: when two people who would otherwise meet in person meet instead privately and anonymously on computer, that helps to dissolve lasting communal bonds.

Tova's Responses to Those Claims

1. She doesn't speak about which form computer communication usually takes, but she does seem to push back against Samuel's assumption that people talking via computer would be interacting in person otherwise. Tova suggests,

2. Tova does speak to its net effect on helping / hurting social bonds. She says it usually replaces "asocial or even antisocial behavior". So she thinks that computer communication is at worst harmless, but probably a net positive. She would disagree that computer communication is helping to dissolve communal bonds.

Goal

There seemed to be two potential disagreements:

Claim 1-- are people talking on the computer sacrificing what would otherwise be a more intimate in-person meetup?

Claim 2 -- is computer communication really dissolving communal bonds?

10.

On the basis of their statements, Samuel and Tova are committed to disagreeing about which one of the following?

  1. A general trend of modern

    Out of Scope

    Neither Samuel nor Tova address a general trend of modern life.

    4% picked this

  2. All purely private behavior contributes

    Too Strong

    While Samuel would agree that some purely private behavior contributes to the dissolution of social bonds, he limits this to private behavior that replaces in person interactions between people.

    6% picked this

  3. Face-to-face communication is more likely

    Half Scope

    While Samuel would agree with this statement, Tova does not address it.

    17% picked this

  4. It is desirable that new

    Out of Scope

    Neither Samuel nor Tova discuss the creation of new social bonds to replace the ones that have dissolved.

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    If people were not communicating

    Why this is right

    Samuel would agree with this statement, while Tova would disagree with it. It seems to relate more to Claim 1. Samuel thinks that computer communication is taking the place of a conversation that would otherwise be in person. An in-person conversation is presumably creating a stronger social bond than a private / anonymous computer conversation. Tova questions the assumption that "if we weren't using the computer, we would most likely be meeting up in-person". She ends up saying that if computer users weren't using the computer, they wouldn't be engaged in pro-social behavior (like intimate meet-ups). They'd either be doing something asocial, like reading a comic book, or doing something antisocial, like writing a manifesto.

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

    72% picked this

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