Logical Reasoning

PT140 · S3 · Q2 Klein: The fact that

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Klein: The fact that the amount of matter that we have found in our galaxy is only one-tenth of what Einstein's theory predicts gives us good reason for abandoning his view.

Klein's Claims

1. The amount of matter we've found in our galaxy is only 1/10 of what Einstein's theory predicts.

2. Because what we've found is only 1/10, that's good reason for abandoning his view.

Brown's Responses

1. Implicitly agrees. Brown doesn't directly comment on this, but her response seems to be acting as though she accepts that there is "missing matter".

2. Disagrees. Brown does not think that finding only 1/10 is a good reason for abandoning Einstein's view. Brown is saying,

Goal

They're disagreeing over whether the "missing matter" problem is / isn't a sign that we should abandon Einstein's view.

2.

On the basis of their statements, Klein and Brown are committed to disagreeing over the truth of which one of the following statements?

  1. Scientists have found only one-tenth

    Both Agree

    We know Klein agrees with this. And Brown implicitly agrees with this, because she is saying that this "missing matter" should prompt a different response than that offered by Klein.

    6% picked this

  2. Einstein's theory has achieved many

    Unsupported Disagree Position

    We can tell that Brown would agree to this. Can we derive from Klein's statements the disagree position, "Einstein's theory has not achieved many successes"? No, Klein never talks about whether or not Einstein's theory has had many successes. The fact that Klein is ready to abandon Einstein's theory does not indicate that Klein doesn't think the theory has achieved many successes. In real life, physicists essentially abandoned Newton's theory in favor of Einstein's, despite the many successes that Newton's theory had had.

    5% picked this

  3. It is possible to determine

    Unsupported Disagree Position

    The disagree position here would be extreme: it is impossible to determine the amount of matter in our galaxy without relying on Einstein's theory. We can't derive that from either person's claims.

    5% picked this

  4. Correct

    The failure to find all

    Why this is right

    This is what we predicted. Klein says that the failure to find all the predicted matter (the fact that we have only found 1/10 of what Einstein predicted) should lead us to abandon his theory ("gives us good reason for abandoning his view"). Brown disagrees, saying, "No let's not abandon his view. Let's assume his view is still correct (given how successful it's been), and instead try to figure out why we haven't found most of the predicted matter".

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

    80% picked this

  5. Scientists are able to accurately

    Unsupported Disagree Position

    The disagree position here is pretty strong: Scientists are unable to accurately judge the amount of matter that has been found in our galaxy. The agree position is also not really derivable from either paragraph: They are able to accurately judge the amount of matter that has been found. Note, that we're not talking about judging how much matter is actually in our galaxy. We're talking about accurately judging how much matter we've found. If Einstein predicted 100 trillion gigatons of matter and we've only found 10 trillion gigatons of matter, this answer is saying, "Can scientists accurately judge that they've only found 10 trillion gigatons?" No one was fighting over whether scientists are correctly / incorrectly tallying up the matter that they've found. Klein is assuming that there isn't tons more matter to be found, which suggests Einstein's theory is wrong. Brown is assuming that Einstein's theory is correct, and so there must be tons more matter to be found. But they could both be having this argument while agreeing that scientists have currently only found 10 trillion gigatons (i.e. scientists have accurately judged how much matter they've found).

    5% picked this

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