Question

Overall, do you think Saletan’s inductive argument is relatively strong or weak? Explain.

it is an article from William Saletan named "Please do not feed the humans"it is in practical arguemnt 4th edition why does he place the thesis where he does

Answer 1

First of all let's understand what is an inductive argument. Inductive argument is an argument where the arguer tries to convet certain premises and if his premises are to be true then it is unlikely that his conclusions are also false. What we need to understand is that there is no sharp line between strong and weak. Let's understand this by analysing the given article.

William Saetan in his article "Please do not feed humans" examines the reasons and ways that had led to an overweight population. He discusses the impacts of fast food and technological advancements had on the modern people. He also notes that the historical relationship between economic class and health has completely reversed. Earlier only rich people could only accesss the luxuary but now a days every one has access to it. Saletan Concludes his article saying that the only way out of this is if the people could change their behaviours. People should start excercising as soon as possible and they shall return to the old ways of eating healthy foods.

Now lets try to understand why his inductive argument is a strong one;

1.He structures his article based on the principles of delated thesis. That is he makes a strong case for himself before actually making his point. Lets undderstand the importance of this strategy by taking a simple example. He says that people should start excercising at the end of his essay after saying a lot of details before hand. Now lets understand how bad it will be if he had started the essay by saying that. The readers might feel offended.

2.Saletan amasses several lines of support for his conclusion, as follows

*Statistics from the World Health Organization and the United Nations prove that people around the world are overweight and suffering health problems as a result

* Socioeconomic information reveals that “fat is no longer a rich man’s disease” and that obesity has actually become more of a problem among the poor.

* Our diets often include processed foods,more sweeteners, and high levels of animal fat and salt.

* The abundance of fast food and larger portions make unhealthy foods more affordable and accessible, while healthy foods are more expensive and less affordable for lower-income families.

*Our mentality about food,eating, and exercise has not changed to compensate for our easy lifestyles.

3.Saletan’s conclusion comes right after his thesis, at the end. So when he states that we need to change how we eat and to exercise more, he quickly follows with advice about tackling the mentality that keeps us from doing so.

From the above points we can understand that Saletan makes a strong case for himself and he has a string inductive argument. We could also understand why he did structure his article like that.