What Makes a Good Statement (or Claim)?
What makes a good statement (or claim)?
Jose Leon
HUMN 210
Professor Miriam Abbott
February 24th, 2013
1. You are given the following ten short claims to analyze. Identify which ones are good or bad statements. If they are bad statements, indicate why. a. Nobody in the world today is really good. b. The world is not flat. c. I will need an extended period of laborious cogitation to assimilate the missive. d. The number 2 is odd. e. If you believe in evolution, then your ancestors were filthy apes. f. Some swans are black. g. If you are a human, then you are a person. If you are an individual, then you are alive. h. The Surgeon General has determined that drinking is bad for pregnant women. i. The world is flat. And because it is flat it is not carbonated. j. The world is flat.
a) Bad statement. Because it is an opinion and the evidence for the person to feel this way is in his mind. Is that true or false? To find out, I would have to be inside the body of the person who said it. Since that's impossible, there is no reason to question it.
b) Good statement.
c) Bad statement. Because this really does not make any sense at all. The statement has words that really don’t sound good together in terms of what he or she wants to express.
d) Bad statement. Because all people know that number 2 is not odd, instead it is an even number.
e) Bad statement. It would have considered being a good statement for people that believe they come from apes due to what the theory of evolution states. But because of the world filthy, many people will consider this statement a bad one.
f) Good statement.
g) Good statement.
h) Good statement.
i) Bad statement. Because the world is not flat and therefore to state that assumption that it is not carbonated also doesn’t make sense at all.
j) Bad statement. Because it is scientifically
Jose Leon
HUMN 210
Professor Miriam Abbott
February 24th, 2013
1. You are given the following ten short claims to analyze. Identify which ones are good or bad statements. If they are bad statements, indicate why. a. Nobody in the world today is really good. b. The world is not flat. c. I will need an extended period of laborious cogitation to assimilate the missive. d. The number 2 is odd. e. If you believe in evolution, then your ancestors were filthy apes. f. Some swans are black. g. If you are a human, then you are a person. If you are an individual, then you are alive. h. The Surgeon General has determined that drinking is bad for pregnant women. i. The world is flat. And because it is flat it is not carbonated. j. The world is flat.
a) Bad statement. Because it is an opinion and the evidence for the person to feel this way is in his mind. Is that true or false? To find out, I would have to be inside the body of the person who said it. Since that's impossible, there is no reason to question it.
b) Good statement.
c) Bad statement. Because this really does not make any sense at all. The statement has words that really don’t sound good together in terms of what he or she wants to express.
d) Bad statement. Because all people know that number 2 is not odd, instead it is an even number.
e) Bad statement. It would have considered being a good statement for people that believe they come from apes due to what the theory of evolution states. But because of the world filthy, many people will consider this statement a bad one.
f) Good statement.
g) Good statement.
h) Good statement.
i) Bad statement. Because the world is not flat and therefore to state that assumption that it is not carbonated also doesn’t make sense at all.
j) Bad statement. Because it is scientifically