Question 1

The following passage contains an argument that is somewhat complex, either because it makes complicated claims or contains a lot of supplementary information. Represent the argument in standard form.
The passage: When we think about living things in general (from microbes and plants to humans and other animals), we can see that an organism is alive if, and only if, it is
functioning as an integrated whole. Certain parts of an organism can stop working and it will still count as alive because it is still a distinct individual that maintains its own structure and functioning: a plant can still be alive even if one of its leaves dies, and a person can still be alive even if they have poor liver function. Furthermore, because a human organism functions as an integrated whole if, but only if, its brain has not entirely and irreversibly ceased to function, we can conclude that a human is dead if, and only if, their entire brain has irreversibly ceased to function.

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The answer of The following passage contains an argument that...

Question 2

The following passage contains an argument that is somewhat complex, either because it makes complicated claims or contains a lot of supplementary information. Represent the argument in standard form.
The passage: … God, if we are to believe an orthodox story, has prescribed eternal torment [in Hell] as a punishment for insubordination…. The orthodox story is explicit about the temporal scale of the punishment: it is to go on forever. Many of those who tell the orthodox story are also concerned to emphasize the quality of the punishment. The agonies to be endured by the damned intensify, in unimaginable ways, the sufferings we undergo in our earthly lives. … Although those who elaborate the orthodox account are sometimes concerned with the fit between crime and punishment, there is no possibility of a genuine balance. For the punishment of the damned is infinitely disproportionate to their crimes. [Therefore, God could never be justified in condemning anyone to Hell.]
(Quoted from Quoted from David Lewis (2007), "Divine Evil," in Philosophers Without Gods, ed. Louise Antony (Oxford University Press), p. 232.)

Accepted Answer

The answer of The following passage contains an argument that...

Question 3

The following passage contains an argument that is somewhat complex, either because it makes complicated claims or contains a lot of supplementary information. Represent the argument in standard form.
The passage:
According to the Medical Model of disability, a disability is an impairment that inherently causes a person to face significant personal and social limitations. The Medical Model doesn't imply that disabled people matter less or that people with
 disabilities don't have lives worth living. The Medical Model does, however, imply that their disabilities make their lives worse, no matter where they live. For example, the Medical Model says that, regardless of the society in which they live, a deaf person's hearing impairment causes communication challenges, which in turn cause significant personal and social limitations.
A thought experiment can show that the Medical Model doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Suppose you wake up one morning having been magically transported to another planet, where there are humans who have evolved the ability to communicate telepathically. You lack this ability. Relative to them, you are telepathically impaired. But, is your lack of telepathy a disability?
 Will your lack of telepathy cause you to face significant limitations?
Importantly, this depends on the details of the society you find yourself in. If much of their business, communication, and entertainment relies on their ability to communicate telepathically, then lacking this ability would make you worse off. And, if they stigmatize people who don't have telepathy-if they treat you with pity or scorn- then you would be worse off. In these kinds of conditions, a lack of telepathy is disabling. But, suppose this mostly telepathic society was set up to accommodate those who lack telepathy. Suppose that everyone is able and willing to use verbal communication instead of telepathy so no one is excluded from social interaction.
Suppose that a lack of telepathy is valued as a form of diversity, and is thus not stigmatized. In that society, you wouldn't be disabled by lacking telepathy, even if it was an ability others tended to have.
The point of this hypothetical example is that social arrangements play a key role in determining whether or not this impairment makes you worse off. The same point can be made about real-world impairments. Just as with telepathic impairment, the effects of hearing impairment, vision impairment, mobility impairment, and so on all depend on social arrangements. If deafness, for example, were accommodated and not stigmatized, then the social limitations most deaf people currently face would be eliminated. This shows the Medical Model is implausible because it totally ignores society's role in turning an impairment into a disability.
(Adapted from arguments by William Vicars ( "http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/disability-deafness.htm" http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/disability-deafness.htm) and Amundson, R., 1992, "Disability, Handicap, and the Environment," Journal of Social Philosophy, 23(1): 105-19.)

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The answer of The following passage contains an argument that...

Quiz 4: Representing Arguments in Standard Form