PHI210 Final Exam 2017

Question

Question 1 Courtnie has been allergic to cats as long as she can remember; this requires her doctor to give her an allergy shot. On her 26th birthday she spends the day in a house with cats and has no reaction. Therefore the allergy shot has helped Courtnie overcome her reaction to cats. The explanation for why she had no reaction describes which of the following?

Question 2 Cliff wants to determine whether people prefer red apples or green apples. In order to obtain good results, he decides to conduct this survey at a car festival. Out of the 5000 people who attended the festival, Cliff surveys 10 attendees randomly. The survey reads, “Which do you prefer, red apples or green apples?” Seven of ten people surveyed answer that they prefer red apples. From his survey, Cliff concludes that most people prefer red apples. Cliff’s results may not be reliable because of which of the following problems with his study?

Question 3 Mary grows hundreds of fruit trees in her orchard. The trees range in age, size, and type. Mary’s neighbor states, “Now that Mary has listened to my advice, 93% of her trees are bearing fruit.” What makes this conclusion difficult to evaluate?

Question 4 A scientist is hired to do research for a tobacco company. Anyone reading the scientist’s conclusions should be aware that the scientist may be which of the following?

Question 5 Which of the following practices would MOST likely be considered pseudoscience?

Question 6 Matt and his roommate Gamal argue repeatedly about wearing shoes in the house versus taking them off at the door. Eventually, both are fed up with constantly arguing. They decide to sit down and talk, and not get up until they come to a resolution. This is an example of which decision-making strategy?

Question 7 Which of the following is the order of the problem-solving process?

Question 8 Bryan is the manager of his company’s IT department. One morning a server cluster loses power. Bryan first checks the power supply, the power cables, the wall outlet, and finally the circuit breaker to find what caused the power outage. What did Bryan do?

Question 9 Which of the following BEST demonstrates “articulating why the decision is necessary?”

Question 10 Dharamdas is looking to buy a new laptop since his old laptop has finally stopped working. He has made a list of all the laptop brands that could potentially fit his needs, and now he is reading reviews and narrowing down his list based on what he learns. Which stage in the problem-solving process is Dharamdas practicing?

Question 11 To Albert, the word “love” brings up positive feelings about his son; to Raj, it brings up negative feelings about a previous relationship; and to Anthony, it refers to the warm feeling he gets during family gatherings. Which category of meaning are these statements describing?

Question 12 Using the term “snail mail” to describe postal mail is an example of which of these?

Question 13 Which statement best describes the relationship between intent and form?

Question 14 A reader analyzes the four categories of meaning in order to do what?

Question 15 Why might advertisers find it appealing to promise that they have a “better” product than the competition?

Question 16 What is an inherent problem with moral relativism?

Question 17 Consider the following argument: Premise 1: Michael took an apple from the farm stand. Premise 2: Stealing is wrong. Conclusion: Therefore, Michael was wrong for stealing the apple. The statement, “stealing is wrong” is an example of which of the following?

Question 18 Which of the following BEST illustrates a justification?

Question 19 What makes an argument an ethical argument?

Question 20 Every day on his way to work, Frederic stops by a large chain hotel at which he is not staying, walks into the lobby, and helps himself to the continental breakfast. He believes this is the right thing to do because it saves him a lot of money and is very convenient. What ethical theory is he using to justify his actions?

Question 21 Which of the following statements uses “innuendo”?

Question 22 Which of the following is an example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy?

Question 23 Adam posted in a thread about theoretical physics. In his post he refuted General Relativity and cited a paper that was recently self-published by one person on her own personal website and had no references to other works in the field. Which important question did Adam not answer sufficiently when evaluating the cited paper?

Question 24 If someone who did not accept scientific claims that climate is changing read “nothing about the science of climate change can be called into question at this point, because there is a consensus among 97 percent of scientists,” that person could, based on this quote, make the argument that there is a _________ fallacy in the climate change argument.

Question 25 When listening to people debating a topic, a critical thinker should ignore _________.