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Two rules of thumb should guide your use of expert opinion. First, if a claim conflicts with the consensus of opinion among experts, you have good reason to doubt the claim. Second, if experts disagree about a claim, you again have good rea- son to doubt it. Slippery Slope Slippery slope is the fallacy of […]

AVOIDING BAD ARGUMENTS Recall that a good argument has true premises plus a conclusion that follows from those premises. A bad argument fails at least one of these conditions— it has a false premise or a conclusion that does not follow. This failure, however, can appear in many different argument forms, some of which are

Does gay marriage undermine the institution of heterosexual marriage? ASSESSING NONMORAL PREMISES Sometimes the sticking point in a moral argument is not a moral premise but a nonmoral one—a claim about a nonmoral state of affairs. Often people on both sides of a dispute may agree on a moral prin- ciple but differ dramatically on

Are African Americans underrepresented among executives in corporate America? ASSESSING NONMORAL PREMISES Sometimes the sticking point in a moral argument is not a moral premise but a nonmoral one—a claim about a nonmoral state of affairs. Often people on both sides of a dispute may agree on a moral prin- ciple but differ dramatically on

When does a fetus become viable? ASSESSING NONMORAL PREMISES Sometimes the sticking point in a moral argument is not a moral premise but a nonmoral one—a claim about a nonmoral state of affairs. Often people on both sides of a dispute may agree on a moral prin- ciple but differ dramatically on the nonmoral facts.

Is a depressed person competent to decide whether to commit suicide? ASSESSING NONMORAL PREMISES Sometimes the sticking point in a moral argument is not a moral premise but a nonmoral one—a claim about a nonmoral state of affairs. Often people on both sides of a dispute may agree on a moral prin- ciple but differ

Does capital punishment deter crime? ASSESSING NONMORAL PREMISES Sometimes the sticking point in a moral argument is not a moral premise but a nonmoral one—a claim about a nonmoral state of affairs. Often people on both sides of a dispute may agree on a moral prin- ciple but differ dramatically on the nonmoral facts. Usually

Does pornography cause people to commit sex crimes? ASSESSING NONMORAL PREMISES Sometimes the sticking point in a moral argument is not a moral premise but a nonmoral one—a claim about a nonmoral state of affairs. Often people on both sides of a dispute may agree on a moral prin- ciple but differ dramatically on the

ASSESSING NONMORAL PREMISESASSESSING NONMORAL PREMISES Sometimes the sticking point in a moral argument is not a moral premise but a nonmoral one—a claim about a nonmoral state of affairs. Often people on both sides of a dispute may agree on a moral prin- ciple but differ dramatically on the nonmoral facts. Usually these facts concern

Is it wrong to kill a person in wartime? Is Premise 1 true? It is at least dubious, because counterexamples abound in which the principle seems false. Is it wrong to kill one person to save a hundred? Is it wrong to kill a person in self- defense? Is it wrong to kill a person