Deck 1: What Is Science

Question 1

Major premise: If a country has a strong economy, the government will be popular.
Minor premise: The government is not popular.
Conclusion: Therefore, the country does not have a strong economy.
Is a valid argument?

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Major premise: If a country has a strong economy, the government will be popular.
Minor premise: The government is not popular.
Conclusion: Therefore, the country does not have a strong economy.
What form (what type of categorical syllogism) does this argument take?

A) affirming the antecedent
B) denying the antecedent
C) affirming the consequent
D) denying the consequent

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Major premise: If the president commits a criminal act, then he can be impeached.
Minor premise: The president does not commit a criminal act.
Conclusion: Therefore, the president cannot be impeached.
Is a valid argument?

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Major premise: If the president commits a criminal act, then he can be impeached.
Minor premise: The president does not commit a criminal act.
Conclusion: Therefore, the president cannot be impeached.
What form (what type of categorical syllogism) does this argument take?

A) affirming the antecedent
B) denying the antecedent
C) affirming the consequent
D) denying the consequent

Question 5

Major premise: If the president commits a criminal act, then he can be impeached.
Minor premise: The president cannot be impeached.
Conclusion: Therefore, the president has not committed a criminal act.
Is a valid argument?

Question 6

Major premise: If the president commits a criminal act, then he can be impeached.
Minor premise: The president cannot be impeached.
Conclusion: Therefore, the president has not committed a criminal act.
What form (what type of categorical syllogism) does this argument take?

A) affirming the antecedent
B) denying the antecedent
C) affirming the consequent
D) denying the consequent

Question 7

Major premise: If a country employs proportional representation electoral rules, it will have many parties.
Minor premise: The country does not employ proportional representation electoral rules.
Conclusion: Therefore, the country does not have many parties.
Is a valid argument?

Question 8

Major premise: If a country employs proportional representation electoral rules, it will have many parties.
Minor premise: The country does not employ proportional representation electoral rules.
Conclusion: Therefore, the country does not have many parties.
What form (what type of categorical syllogism) does this argument take?

A) affirming the antecedent
B) denying the antecedent
C) affirming the consequent
D) denying the consequent

Question 9

Major premise: If theory T is correct, all rich countries will be democracies.
Minor premise: All rich countries are democracies.
Conclusion: Therefore, theory T is correct.
Is a valid argument?

Question 10

Major premise: If theory T is correct, all rich countries will be democracies.
Minor premise: All rich countries are democracies.
Conclusion: Therefore, theory T is correct.
What form (what type of categorical syllogism) does this argument take?

A) affirming the antecedent
B) denying the antecedent
C) affirming the consequent
D) denying the consequent

Question 11

Consider the following premise: "If theory T is correct, all rich countries will be democracies." If you wanted to demonstrate that theory T was wrong, what would you have to observe?

A) a poor democracy
B) a rich dictatorship
C) a poor dictatorship
D) a rich democracy

Question 12

Major premise: If a country's electoral rules are permissive, then votes should be translated into seats in a fairly proportional manner.
Minor premise: In the most recent election, votes were not translated into seats in a proportional manner.
Conclusion: Therefore, the country's electoral rules are not permissive.
Is a valid argument?

Question 13

Major premise: If a country's electoral rules are permissive, then votes should be translated into seats in a fairly proportional manner.
Minor premise: In the most recent election, votes were not translated into seats in a proportional manner.
Conclusion: Therefore, the country's electoral rules are not permissive.
What form (what type of categorical syllogism) does this argument take?

A) affirming the antecedent
B) denying the antecedent
C) affirming the consequent
D) denying the consequent

Question 14

Major premise: If a country has a participant culture, then democracy in that country will be stable.
Minor premise: Democracy in country X is stable.
Conclusion: Therefore, country X has a participant culture.
Is a valid argument?

Question 15

Major premise: If a country has a participant culture, then democracy in that country will be stable.
Minor premise: Democracy in country X is stable.
Conclusion: Therefore, country X has a participant culture.
What form (what type of categorical syllogism) does this argument take?

A) affirming the antecedent
B) denying the antecedent
C) affirming the consequent
D) denying the consequent

Question 16

A valid argument is

A) one where the conclusion is true.
B) one where the conclusion is false.
C) one where you do not have to accept the conclusion if you accept the premises.
D) one where you have to accept the conclusion if you accept the premises.

Question 17

The deductive approach to learning

A) starts with a set of observations and then tries to ascertain a pattern in the observations that can be used to generate an explanation.
B) formulates an expectation about what we ought to observe in light of a particular theory about the world and then sets out to see if the observations are consistent with that theory.

Question 18

If I observe a pattern in political events and decide to generate an explanation for those events, I am practicing ______ approach to learning.

A) deductive
B) inductive
C) deterministic
D) probabilistic

Question 19

If I derive some implications from a theory and collect observations to see if they are consistent with that theory, I am practicing ______ approach to learning.

A) deductive
B) inductive
C) deterministic
D) probabilistic

Question 20

Inductive reasoning is problematic because it relies on

A) affirming the antecedent.
B) denying the antecedent.
C) affirming the consequent.
D) denying the consequent.

Question 21

"Smoking increases the probability of getting cancer." Is a scientific statement?

Question 22

"The sun revolves around the earth." Is a scientific statement?

Question 23

"Education spending increases under left-wing governments." Is a scientific statement?

Question 24

"Iceland is a country." Is a scientific statement?

Question 25

"Religious faith assures a person a place in the afterlife." Is a scientific statement?

Question 26

"Democracies are less likely to go to war than dictatorships." Is a scientific statement?

Question 27

"Democratic leaders are more likely to provide public goods for their citizens than dictators are." Is a scientific statement?

Question 28

"Dictators are more likely to provide public goods for their citizens than democratic leaders are." Is a scientific statement?

Question 29

"Smoking causes people to be taller than six feet." Is a scientific statement?

Question 30

"All mainstream U.S. senators agree that the House bill is unacceptable." Is this statement scientific if "mainstream" is defined in terms of the acceptability of the House bill?

Question 31

"All mainstream U.S. senators agree that the House bill is unacceptable." Is this statement scientific if "mainstream" is defined in terms of the ideology of the senators?

Question 32

"All good students get high grades." Is this statement scientific if "good" is defined in terms of a student's grade?

Question 33

"All good students get high grades." Is this statement scientific if "good" is defined in terms of a student's enthusiasm?

Question 34

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
-"If a DEMOCRACY IS WEALTHY, then it will stay a democracy." Are the conditions shown in capital letters sufficient or necessary to produce the effects described?

A) Sufficient
B) Necessary

Question 35

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
-"A country cannot maintain a democratic form of government unless IT HAS A CULTURE THAT PROMOTES CIVIC PARTICIPATION." Are the conditions shown in capital letters sufficient or necessary to produce the effects described?

A) Sufficient
B) Necessary

Question 36

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
-"Countries have many parties only WHEN THEY EMPLOY PROPORTIONAL ELECTORAL RULES." Are the conditions shown in capital letters sufficient or necessary to produce the effects described?

A) Sufficient
B) Necessary

Question 37

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
-"Countries always have few parties WHEN THEY EMPLOY MAJORITARIAN ELECTORAL RULES." Are the conditions shown in capital letters sufficient or necessary to produce the effects described?

A) Sufficient
B) Necessary

Question 38

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
-"IF A COUNTRY'S POPULATION IS ETHNICALLY HETEROGENEOUS, then it will experience political conflict." Are the conditions shown in capital letters sufficient or necessary to produce the effects described?

A) Sufficient
B) Necessary

Question 39

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
-"A country cannot maintain democracy UNLESS IT HAS A TOLERANT CULTURE." Are the conditions shown in capital letters sufficient or necessary to produce the effects described?

A) Sufficient
B) Necessary

Question 40

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
-"Countries always maintain democratic regimes IF THEY HAVE A STRONG URBAN CLASS." Are the conditions shown in capital letters sufficient or necessary to produce the effects described?

A) Sufficient
B) Necessary

Question 41

A falsifiable statement means that

A) the statement is not scientific.
B) the statement is wrong.
C) the statement is potentially testable.

Question 42

Scientists never prove that their theories are correct. However, they can

A) demonstrate that their theories are logically valid.
B) use empirical evidence to show that their theories are wrong.
C) claim that some theories have more empirical support than others.
D) all of these.

Question 43

A scientific statement must be falsifiable.

Question 44

Science is a collection of facts-it tells us what we know about the world.

Question 45

Statements that cannot ever be tested must be wrong.

Question 46

Imagine that an analyst is interested in understanding why civil wars occur. If the analyst chooses to study only cases in which civil wars have occurred (e.g., in the Congo, Greece, Spain, Sri Lanka, the United States, and Yugoslavia), then she is using

A) Mill's Method of Agreement.
B) Mill's Method of Difference.
C) Mill's Method of Agreement and Method of Difference.

Question 47

Imagine that an analyst is interested in understanding why civil wars occur. If the analyst chooses to study some cases in which civil war occurred (Greece, Spain, and Yugoslavia. and some cases in which they did not (Belgium, Italy, Switzerland), then he is using

A) Mill's Method of Agreement.
B) Mill's Method of Difference.
C) Mill's Method of Agreement and Method of Difference.

Question 48

According to the discussion in Chapter 2, it is possible for scientists to draw valid inferences from Mill's Methods of Agreement and Difference only if

A) the causal process is deterministic.
B) all the potential causes have been identified.
C) there is a single cause of the outcome.
D) none of these
E) all of the assumptions listed must hold.