EXERCISES

A. Give a reason or two in addition to the reasons already given in each of the following:—­

1.  It is better to attend a large college than a small one, because the teachers are as a rule greater experts in their lines of work.

2.  The school board ought to give us a field for athletics as the school ground is not large enough for practice.

3.  Gymnasium work ought to be made compulsory.  Otherwise many who need physical training will neglect it.

4.  The game of basket ball is an injury to a school, since it detracts from interest in studies.

5.  Rudolph Horton will make a good class president because he has had experience.

B. Be able to answer orally any two of the following: 

1.  Prove to a timid person that there is no more danger in riding in an automobile than there is in riding in a carriage drawn by horses.  Use but one argument, but make it as strong as possible.

2.  Give two good reasons why the superstition concerning Friday is absurd.

3.  What, in your mind, is the strongest reason why you wish to graduate from a high school?  For your wishing to go into business after leaving the high school?  For your wishing to attend college?

4.  What are two or three of the strong arguments in favor of woman suffrage?  Name two or three arguments in opposition to woman suffrage.

C. Name all the points that you can in favor of the following.  Select the one that you consider the most important.

1.  Try to convince a friend that he ought to give up the practice of cigarette smoking.

2.  Show that athletics in a high school ought to be under the management of the faculty.

3.  Show that athletics should be under the management of the pupils themselves.

4.  Macbeth’s ambition and not his wife was the cause of his ruin.

5.  Macbeth’s wife was the cause of his ruin.

+Theme CI.+—­Select one of the subjects in the exercise above, and write out two or three of the strongest arguments in its favor.

(Consider the premises, especially those which are not expressed.  Is your argument deductive or inductive?)

+183.  The Basis of Belief.+—­If you ask yourself, Why do I believe this? the answer will in many cases show that your belief in the particular case under consideration arises because you believe some general principle or theory which applies to it.

One person may believe that political economy should be taught in high schools because he believes that it is the function of the high school to train its pupils for citizenship, and that the study of political economy will furnish this training.  Another person may oppose the teaching of political economy because he believes that pupils of high school age are not sufficiently mature in judgment to discuss intelligently the principles of political economy, and that the study of these principles at that age does not furnish desirable training for citizenship.  It is evident that an argument between these two concerning the teaching of political economy in any particular school would consist in a discussion of the conflicting general theories which each believed to be true.