- PowerScore Staff
- Posts: 868
- Joined: Oct 19, 2022
- Fri Feb 28, 2025 2:25 pm
#112125
Hi Seo,
The way that alternate causes attack causal arguments is when an argument concludes that one thing (specifically) caused something else. In that case, offering a possible alternate cause for the effect would weaken the conclusion.
For example, imagine the following argument.
"A group of people smoke cigarettes and have lung cancer. Therefore smoking cigarettes caused their lung cancer."
In this argument, an answer such as "There is a lot of air pollution where this group of people live" would offer a possible alternate cause for their lung cancer (since air pollution can also cause lung cancer) and would weaken the argument.
In this argument, the statement that "irradiation spawns unique radiolytic products that cause serious health problems, including cancer" is stated as a premise. Answers that state that there are other causes for serious health problems does not undermine this premise. That type of answer is different than the example above, in which a possible alternate cause is provided for the specific observed effect.
The way that alternate causes attack causal arguments is when an argument concludes that one thing (specifically) caused something else. In that case, offering a possible alternate cause for the effect would weaken the conclusion.
For example, imagine the following argument.
"A group of people smoke cigarettes and have lung cancer. Therefore smoking cigarettes caused their lung cancer."
In this argument, an answer such as "There is a lot of air pollution where this group of people live" would offer a possible alternate cause for their lung cancer (since air pollution can also cause lung cancer) and would weaken the argument.
In this argument, the statement that "irradiation spawns unique radiolytic products that cause serious health problems, including cancer" is stated as a premise. Answers that state that there are other causes for serious health problems does not undermine this premise. That type of answer is different than the example above, in which a possible alternate cause is provided for the specific observed effect.