Logical Reasoning

PT150 · S3 · Q13 Hendry: Most employee strikes

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Hendry: Most employee strikes should be legally permitted.

Hendry's Claims

1. Most employee strikes should be legally permitted.

2. University faculty strikes shouldn't be legally permitted.

3. Faculty strikes harm a university's students.

4. If a strike would harm the employer's customers, then it shouldn't be legally permitted.

Menkin's Responses

1. No Position. Although she says "employee strikes should almost never be legally permitted", that's only if we accept Hendry's principle. We don't know whether Menkin accepts Hendry's principle, so we don't know if Menkin actually thinks that almost no strikes should be legally permitted.

2. No Position. Menkin never says anything specifically about faculty strikes at a university.

3. No Position. Menkin never says anything specifically about faculty strikes at a university.

4. No Position. Menkin just says, "if your principle is correct", so we don't know whether Menkin thinks the principle is or isn't correct.

Evaluate

Since the 2nd speaker didn't disagree with any of the 1st speaker's explicit claims, we have to go a level deeper. Is Menkin disagreeing with one of Hendry's assumptions?

Menkin says that using Hendry's principle would contradict one of the things Hendry's claims.

Menkin is saying that Hendry's principle contradicts the idea that "most employee strikes should be legally permitted". According to the principle, a strike shouldn't be legally permitted if it would harm the employer's customers.

harm customers → shouldn't be permitted should be permitted → not harm customers

If Hendry thinks that most strikes should be permitted, then he thinks that "most strikes do not harm customers".

If Menkin thinks that most strikes shouldn't be permitted, then he thinks that "most strikes do harm customer".

Goal

Let's look for an answer about whether or not most strikes would harm the employer's customers.

13.

On the basis of their statements, Hendry and Menkin are committed to disagreeing over whether

  1. a university's students should be

    Unsupported 2nd Speaker

    Menkin has no position whatsoever on anything relating to universities, faculties, or students.

    3% picked this

  2. Correct

    most employee strikes would harm

    Why this is right

    Menkin agrees with this, since she's arguing that if we follow Hendry's principle, it will mean that most strikes shouldn't be permitted. This implies that Menkin thinks that most strikes would harm the employer's customers. Hendry disagrees with this, because he thinks that most strikes should be permitted, and according to the principle he accepts, that means that most strikes do not harm the employer's customers.

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

    62% picked this

  3. strikes by university faculty should

    Unsupported 2nd Speaker

    Menkin has no position whatsoever on anything relating to universities, faculties, or students.

    6% picked this

  4. most employee strikes should be

    Disagree Position Unsupported

    We know that Hendry agrees with this, because he explicitly says so. But we don't know how Menkin feels about this. She only gave a judgment based on if we were to accept Hendry's principle. But she didn't say that she does accept Hendry's principle, so this hypothetical judgment doesn't reflect her actual beliefs. Suppose I said this hypothetical statement: "If I inherited $1 million, then I should donate $100,000 to the local food bank". That doesn't mean I am saying I should actually right now donate $100k to the local food bank. Suppose I were arguing with someone who had offensive views on women and said, "If women really weren't as smart as men, then you shouldn't have had a female obstetrician deliver your wife's baby". You can't accuse me of believing "You shouldn't have a female obstetrician deliver your baby", because that idea was just an implication of accepting someone else's ridiculous statement about women.

    28% picked this

  5. faculty strikes harm a university's

    Unsupported 2nd Speaker

    Menkin has no position whatsoever on anything relating to universities, faculties, or students.

    1% picked this

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