In the second place, the arguer fails to provide the necessary information based on which we can evaluate the comprehensive effect of the government s action. The background of the incident is that the drug abuse has now become ever more serious a social problem than anytime in the past.

And this is what motivated the government actions against drug trafficking in the first place. We, therefore, can reasonably assume that before the government took actions the abuse of all major popular drugs had been on the trend of increase, including the use of cocaine¹. The newspaper editorial, however, only mentions the observed increase in the use of cocaine while failing to provide any information to specify² the current increase and that before the government strengthened its drug contraction³ efforts. We thus cannot compare the patterns of change in this aspect before and after the government actions in order to reach any valid⁴ conclusion about the impact of the government actions on the use of cocaine. If the trend of increase in cocaine abuse has been slowed down, or if the total amount of illegal drugs in the market has been significantly reduced, even though the absolute use of cocaine is still increasing, we would say that the government efforts in apprehending⁵ drug traffickers are somehow effective. In conclusion, the arguer oversimplifies the cause-and-effect relationship between government s increased efforts and the observed increase in the illegal use of cocaine.

To strengthen the argument, the arguer would have to provide evidence that the government s enforcement efforts have directly led to the increased supply and use of cocaine. To better evaluate the argument, we would need more information about the trend of increase in the use of cocaine and other drugs before and after the government s actions. 六、Argument典型逻辑错误

1. 调查类逻辑错误 抽样的程序是否具有随机性 样品是否足够大

Example 1: The following appeared as part of an article in a trade magazine for breweries⁷. “Magic Hat Brewery⁸ recently released the results of a survey of visitors to its tasting room last year. Magic Hat reports that the majority of visitors asked to taste its low-calorie beers. To boost sales, other small breweries should brew⁶ low-calorie beers as well.” Example 2: The following appeared in a memorandum⁹ from a member of a financial management and consulting firm. “We have learned from an employee of Witful Ltd. that is accounting¹⁰ department by checking about 10% of the last month purchasing invoices¹¹ for errors any inconsistencies saved the company some $10,000 in over-payments. In order to help our clients increase the net gains, we should advise each of them to institute a policy of checking all purchasing invoices for errors. Such recommendation could also help us get the Witful account by demonstrating to Witful the regressness of our methods." A. The source of the news is not dependable. B. The sample cannot reflect the general condition.

2. 错误类比

Example: The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Carlo s Clothing to the staff. "Since Disc Depot¹², the music store on the next block, began a new radio advertising¹³ campaign last year, its business has grown dramatically, as evidenced by the large increase in foot traffic into the store. While the Disc Depot s owners have apparently¹⁴ become wealthy enough to retire, profits at Carlo s Clothing have remained stagnant¹⁵ for the past three years. In order to boost our sales and profits, we should therefore switch from newspaper advertising to frequent radio advertisements like those for Disc Depot." A. First, the argument rests on a fallacy of post hoc, ergo proper hoc. B. Another problem with this argument is that it suffers from a false analogy.

 3. 证据遗失类逻辑错误

Example: The following appeared in the editorial section of a local paper. "Applications for advertising spots on KMTV, our local cable television channel, decreased last year. Meanwhile a neighboring town s local channel, KOOP, changed its focus to farming issues and reported an increase in advertising applications for the year. To increase applications for advertisement its spots, KMTV should focus its programming on farming issues as well." A. The argument is based on a false analogy. B. In addition, the arguer ignores other ways to increase the applications for advertising spots on KMTV.