1)People are generally lazy
2)Some people are not lazy and are creative
3)People that are not lazy are productive
4)Those that are productive deserve reward
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Therefore, corporations have the right to ignore union contracts and exploit workers.
This argument is supposed to make corporations look bad, but is obviously fallacious. I suppose in a way its a straw person argument, attacking a weaker form of an argument a corporation might promote.
I did not think this argument made much sense at all. I just read through it a few times and struggled to understand what it is trying to say even though you gave an answer for that after the argument. It is contradictory as well. It says people are "generally" lazy and then it says "some" people are not lazy. The first claim is the general population and "some" usually goes with the general population. Do you see where I would need some clarification?
ReplyDeleteDoes this smell like Red Herring? Seems like a strange argument. Is the author drunk? Something is missing or the structure of the authors writing is out of wack. It contradicts itself and formulates a conclusion that does not follow the premises.
ReplyDeleteI agree with these guys. I don't know if this could even constitute as an argument. The premises have nothing behind them and the conclusion doesn't seem related at all. I can see where you are coming from but to draw that conclusion I think you would have to mention something in there about unions or worker production or something.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the source? It is always best to quote the passage you are translating, so we can see when you've got it right.
ReplyDeleteThe first two premises are consistent with each other, if by "generally" we simply mean "most of the time."
I think there is a begged question between 2 and 3 as to whether creativity entails productivity, but this is peripheral.
Some steps are missing to get to the conclusion, but the operative worldview is clear enough, and really is the justification we use for our distribution of income and wealth. It is precisely the moral vision that motivates corporatism (which now dominates both major political parties), and we would do well to understand it.
Dig a little deeper an try to say what goes wrong.