Logical Reasoning

PT138 · S4 · Q15 Camille: Manufacturers of water-saving faucets

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Camille: Manufacturers of water-saving faucets exaggerate the amount of money such faucets can save.

Conclusion

The manufacturers' claims are not exaggerated. (Water-saving faucets do save you as much money as they claim)

Evidence

I have had lower water bills since I installed a water-saving faucet.

Evaluation

If we are trying to argue the Anti-Conclusion, then we're thinking GIVEN THAT ... she's had lower water bills since she installed her water-saving faucet, HOW WOULD WE STILL ARGUE ... that she's not saving as much as the manufacturers' claimed?

Well ... how much did they claim she would save? How much is she saving? If they claimed she'd save 30% and she's saving 10%, then it seems like the manufacturers did exaggerate how much money she would save.

Goal

Find an answer asking questions about how much they claimed she'd save vs. how much she is actually saving, or an answer that points out .

15.

The reasoning in Rebecca's argument is questionable in that she takes for granted that

  1. the cost of installing her

    Out of Scope

    She hasn't claimed that she's already made her money back, or that this water-saving faucet has already paid for itself, so she's not committed to assuming that she spent less to install this than what she's already saved from it. Her argument is just that she's been saving money every month, so they didn't exaggerate about what she'd save. You might know that an investment is supposedly going to take several years to pay for itself, but you could still gauge whether it's on track to do so by looking at how the first few months go.

    11% picked this

  2. Correct

    she saved as much on

    Why this is right

    If she thinks that the manufacturer's didn't exaggerate how much she'd save, then she believes she's saving as much as they promised she would. If we negated this assumption it would indeed be an objection: if she hasn't saved as much as the manufacturers claimed she would, then they were exaggerating their claims.

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

    64% picked this

  3. the manufacturers' claims about the

    Not a Good Objection

    Yes, she's probably assuming that the manufacturers' claims are not contradictory (inconsistent = contradictory). But that's not a great objection. She said, "Since I'm saving money each month, they must have been right about how much I'd save." If we said, "Oh, yeah? We'll you're assuming that the manufacturers' claims don't contradict each other" we would sound kind of crazy. This doesn't relate to the author's bad reasoning move from "saving money" to "saving as much as they promised".

    15% picked this

  4. people who use water-saving faucets

    Out of Scope: "satisfied"

    The truth value of the author's conclusion hinges only on whether she's saving as much water as the manufacturers claimed. So whether or not customers are satisfied with the volume of water is out of scope.

    8% picked this

  5. installing more water-saving faucets in

    Out of Scope: "installing more"

    This author is only assessing whether the one faucet she did install did / didn't save her as much money as the manufacturers' claims suggested it would. For the sake of this argument, there's no reason she needs to assume anything about a hypothetical world in which she installs more of these faucets. Assumptions ≠ other things the author would probably believe. This answer is something the author would probably believe, but her move from "I'm saving money on this faucet" to "The manufacturers didn't exaggerate how much money I would save on this faucet" doesn't require any information about hypothetical additional faucets.

    2% picked this

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