Question

1. Discuss the ambiguities on which the arguments depend.

a. Ben is a person who is a good quarterback. Therefore, Ben is a good person.

b. All dissidents are not revolutionaries. Lenin was a dissident. There he was not a revolutionary.

c. All material things are made up of atoms and molecules, which have space between and within them. Therefore, objects that appear to be solid, such as tables and chairs, are really not.

d. Alzheimer's disease is common; the Queen is not common. There the Queen has not got Alzheimer's.

Answer 1

a. When the meaning of a word or phrase shifts within the course of an argument, a fallacy of ambiguity occurs. This case represents the fallacy of division, which is a specific type of ambiguity. This occurs when one reasons logically that something true for the whole must also be true of all or some of its parts. In formal terms, the argument appears as follows:

The object O has the property P.
Therefore, all of the parts of O have the property P.
(Where the property P is one which does not distribute from a whole to its parts.)

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