The Logic of Inquiry: Practice Exercises

For your assignment, report on one of the following exercises. You are likely to continue to develop the arguments from this exercise in later units, so take some time to decide on an area of focus you would want to pursue through several weeks (it might even lead to a good thesis or alternate plan topic).

1. Using “X,” “Y,” and “Z,” and the modifiers “All,” “Some,” and “None,” construct the 27 forms of the deductive syllogism and determine which are valid and which are invalid.

a. For example, the first might be “All X are Y. All Y are Z. Therefore All Z are X.”

b. Since there are 3 forms of X, and of Y, and of Z—hence there are 27 possible forms of the syllogism (3 x 3 x 3, or 3³).

c. For each of your valid syllogisms, replace the abstract terms with terms from your particular area of study to form valid deductive arguments.

2. Develop a schematic form for stating for each of Mills’ 5 “Canons of Induction“ (in other words, uses “X” and “y” for the nouns so you can focus on the verbs which link them together).

a. For each of your arguments (that’s the fancy name for each of your statements), replace the abstract terms with terms from your particular area of study to form valid inductive arguments.

3. Select 3 editorials or opinion essays (from newspapers or magazines or professional journals—I particularly recommend Tom Dahlberg & Erick Kaardal’s essay, “Metro America stands for past, not the future,” in the Minneapolis StarTribune, 8/27/04) that are related to your particular area of study. Evaluate each for

a. The argument being advanced

b. The use of rhetorical devices.

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