6.7: Exercises

1. Create a four-page argumentative essay, typed double-spaced, that analyzes the following argument and that attacks the main points of the argument below and then creates a counterargument.

Animals may appear to have minds, but in fact they don't. Do you seriously believe that a one-celled animal has a mind? Besides, to have a mind it has to have a soul. Yet if every gnat had a soul, there would be a population explosion in the domains of the spirit, that is, in heaven. Heaven surely has no such room. So, gnats and other beasts are mindless.

There are several other reasons I can offer in defense of my point. I have recently been reading the works of Louis Racine, who wrote in 1700 in France. Here is Louis's argument. He is commenting on Rene Descartes's claim that animals are automata. "If beasts had souls and were capable of feelings, would they show themselves insensible to the affront and injustice done them by Descartes? Would they not rather have risen up in wrath against [Descartes who] so degraded them?" That sounds right to me.

God is good, and we can see "how much more humane is the doctrine that animals suffer no pain." What Cardinal Melchior de Polignac meant by saying this is that it takes a mind to feel pain, but animals feel no pain—they just flinch when pricked—and this attitude that animals feel no pain is correct because the attitude is the most humane approach to animals.

Everyone knows animals are just creatures of instinct. Essentially all animal behavior is unsophisticated by our standards. A lion sees an antelope and lunges for it. The antelope sees the lion, and lurches away.

You will be graded on the clarity and organization of your essay, on the lack of incorrect and silly comments, and on the depth of your insight into the topic.

2. Write a letter in which you weigh the pros and cons involved in hiring either Roth or Toomey as a legislative advocate (that is, lobbyist) for the City of Newark, New Jersey. In this fictitious case, you are an independent consultant, making a recommendation to the city council, and you have interviewed and eliminated all other candidates except these two. The council is voting on this personnel matter at its next meeting in three days. Your report should be written as a confidential letter to the council. Begin with your recommendation, then give an argument justifying your recommendation by weighing the pros and cons. Here is the description of the job that the two candidates are applying for.

The Legislative Advocate will represent the interests of the City of Newark before the state government of New Jersey, including but not limited to the legislature, the office of the governor, and the state's various departments, staff, offices, and committees. This position requires writing legislation, recommending legislation, providing information to the City and its staff about the activities of the State Government, representing the city before the State Government in the capitol, providing testimony at hearings, lobbying for passage or defeat of bills before the Legislature, encouraging the Governor to sign or veto bills that have passed the legislature, and other related activities.

The Legislative Advocate reports directly to the president of the city council and supplies monthly reports to the entire council. Salary $162,000 per year plus medical, dental, and optical benefits. The city will supply one full-time secretary, office space, two telephone land lines, one cell phone with unlimited calling, a desktop computer or laptop computer, a fax machine, copy machine, and at least 400 square feet office space in a City building.

Background on the City Council: 3 Republicans, 6 Democrats; president is a Republican; 6 men, 3 women; 5 white, 3 black; 1 Hispanic.

Background on New Jersey: Democratic governor. Republicans hold a two-thirds majority in the two houses of the Legislature.

Confidential analysis of personnel matters:

ROTH: Has previously been a legislative advocate for an Illinois public employee labor union and also for Planned Parenthood in Illinois. Eighteen years ago she and another black female were fired from their positions as county social workers for continuing to picket the county during a strike in violation of a court injunction declaring the strike illegal. The case reached the Illinois Supreme Court and was overturned, winning public employees in Illinois the right to strike. She is currently one of two lobbyists for the City of Chicago, representing the city before the Illinois state government. Her specialties are lobbying for issues concerning health care, labor relations, and urban planning. Holds a master's degree in public health from the University of Pennsylvania. Has letters of support from two Democratic and two Republican city council members in Chicago. Has never lived in New Jersey. No convictions. Age 43. Registered Democrat. Main new idea offered during interview: Lobby for a state bill enabling Newark to legally offer free hypodermic needles to drug addicts in exchange for their used needles.

TOOMEY: Lawyer. Served for two years as a researcher on a taxation committee in the New York legislature. Toomey was an administrative aide for the current lieutenant governor of New Jersey, a Republican, but was fired from that position after serving four months. Ran for city council of Princeton eight years ago, receiving thirty-one percent of the vote. Presently is a legislative advocate representing the U.S. Steel Corporation and the Association of Airports of New Jersey before the State. Toomey has worked actively on the election campaign of the speaker of the state senate of New Jersey, who is a personal friend of two Republican members of the Newark city council. Drivers license suspended for six months for drunk driving two years ago. White. Age 63. Registered Republican. Main new idea offered during interview: Newark should make the homeless and the panhandlers less visible to other citizens.

3. This is a three-week assignment. Your instructor will give you a description of a controversial issue. Pick one side of the issue and write an essay defending your opinion. Make it about four pages long, typed double-spaced. It is due one week after it is assigned. The class's essays will then be randomly redistributed to the class. Make sure you don't get your own essay back. For the essay you receive, write a three-page analysis of the quality of the essay. Can you think of better points the writer could have made? Can you think of counterarguments the writer failed to notice? This analysis is due in one week. Put your name on it, and staple it to the back of the first essay. The essay-analysis pairs will then be randomly redistributed to the class. Make sure you don't get any of your own work back. For the pair that you receive, write a three-page critique of both the original essay and the analysis given of it. Put your name on your critique, and staple it to the back of the pair. Turn in the trio within one week.

4. Describe to a sixth-grade science class the similarities and differences between a shadow and a reflection.

5. Common Sense was published anonymously on January 10, 1776. The American radical, Thomas Paine, wrote this fifty-page argumentative essay for a variety of reasons, the main one being to convince readers that the colonies should pursue revolution rather than reconciliation. In 400 to 700 words, summarize the argument against reconciliation. To get some flavor of the arguing, consider Paine's reaction below to the assertion that Great Britain is America's parent, the implication being that after some bad times the child should reconcile with the parent rather than revolt and drive away the parent:

Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore, the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so, and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America.

6. Research the history of California in the 1930s, then create an argumentative essay making a police officer's case for Okies not settling there.

7. View the film The Grapes of Wrath in your college library or elsewhere, then write an essay speculating on the explanation of why the film treated its Chapter 3 the way it did.

8. Write an argumentative essay about utilitarianism in which you conclude either for or against it. Predict the criticisms that might be offered by your opponent and deal with them in your essay.

9. Create an argumentative essay on one of the following topics.

a. Should Columbus Day celebrations be promoted or downplayed?
b. Is a fetus a person with rights?
c. Should our country's defense budget be increased, decreased, or kept the same?
d. If you drop your new toothbrush in the toilet, should you throw it away, should you wash it in hot water and continue using it, or should you do something else?
e. How sure can you be that you are not now dreaming?
f. What is wrong with the following reasoning?
It is impossible for the instructor to leave this room through the door. In order to get out, he (or she) must move from where he is now and walk across the room to the door. But before that, he must reach the halfway point from where he is to the door. But before that, he must reach the one-quarter point from where he is to the door. But before that, he must reach the one-eighth point, and so forth. He has an infinite number of places to go before leaving the room, and nobody has enough time to visit an infinite number of places.
g. Is the punishment for using crack cocaine too lenient?
h. Are numbers real objects, or are they just in our heads?
i. In what ways is the system of taxes unfair—that is, who or what is not taxed the proper amount
j. Should a judge ever be able to require a reporter to reveal the identity of her sources (informants)?
k. When is it ever proper to steal?
l. Should there be a death penalty for any crimes?
m. Should flag burning ever be illegal?
n. Property owned by organized religions or by insurance companies does not and should not pay property taxes, right?
o. Should the border between the U.S. and Mexico be made more open like that between the U.S. and Canada, or should it be made more difficult to cross?
p. Discuss this position: Environmentalists do not work from facts. They use tainted theory to scare Americans into believing their lies. Trust me. The Earth will be here for our great-grandchildren to enjoy, even if you do use disposable diapers.
q. Is it OK to pay a worker below the minimum wage if the worker voluntarily agrees to work for less?
r. Should the federal and state governments create more regulations and red tape for companies involved in producing or selling the food we all eat?
s. Who was the best U.S. president?
t. What country has the worst foreign policy?
u. Are any college sports programs overfunded or underfunded?
v.Should county health departments have the right to give out free, clean needles to drug addicts as a means of curbing the spread of AIDS?
w. Should employers be able to refuse to hire people who have AIDS, and should insurers be able to refuse to sell them insurance for this reason?
x. If (you believe) the amount spent on public welfare is too high, where should the money be spent instead? If (you believe) the amount spent on public welfare is too low, where should the government get the money for the increase?
y. Is it OK for the federal government to use our tax monies to bail out failed businesses such as savings and loans?
z. Who will probably do more to improve the United States in the future, the Republicans or the Democrats?