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WorksheetsM&M Chapter 7, "Arguing Definitions," Introduction
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 35mins
Arguments over pre-established issues usually play out according to pre-established ___(1)____, with people lining up on one side or the other. But beneath such typical arguments lurks a layer of ____(2)____ (and possible arguments) such as What is guilt? What is innocence? What is responsibility? What is marriage? What is love?
1) ideas; 2) assumptions
1) positions; 2) questions
1) positions; 2) assumptions
1) ideas; 2) questions
Questions like What is guilt? What is innocence? What is responsibility? What is marriage? What is love? get to our basic _________. They prompt us to examine and defend definitions that operate undetected beneath everyday life.
knowledge
education
common sense
assumptions
Consider, for instance, the various ways we might define love:
a chemical attraction, a social declaration, an interpersonal commitment, an emotional feeling, a gift from God, a state of selflessness, a highly evolved psychological attribute.
as a tool-using animal, as a symbol user, as a spiritually motivated being, as a conscious dreamer, and so on.
Geographers always redefine the nature of their field; psychologists constantly reshape the boundaries of their study; historians take on increasingly more diverse questions about human affairs.
an institution that creates new knowledge, a tradition that dispenses what is already known, a community of scholars that questions what is already known, or even a service that enables people to enter the workforce.
Each definition of a concept like love has profound significance for how one might ___(1)___ and ___(2)___—and how one might ___(3)____ about issues like marriage.
1) power; 2) think; 3) framework
1) live; 2) think; 3) argue
1) arguments; 2) wasteland; 3) vital
1) debate; 2) slippery; 3) understanding
In short, definitions have ____(1)____. This is not to suggest that definitions make everyone ____(2)____ in a particular way, but they do suggest a mental ____(3)_____, and once that is in place, ignoring it becomes difficult.
1) live; 2) think; 3) argue
1) power; 2) think; 3) framework
1) arguments; 2) wasteland; 3) vital
1) debate; 2) slippery; 3) understanding
Consider this: If a forested area is called ____(1)_____, people may imagine it as empty space to build on; if it is called ____(2)____, people may think of it as wood; if it is called ____(3)____, people are apt to imagine it as a place already occupied. And once people imagine the forest in a particular way, they respond to it accordingly.
1) undeveloped; 2) virgin timber; 3) wildlife habitat
1) undeveloped; 2) wildlife habitat; 3) virgin tinder
1) wildlife habitat; 2) virgin timber; 3) undeveloped
1) undeveloped; 2) virgin tinder; 3) wildlife habitat
In short, what we call something matters. And definitions enable us to make other _____(1)_____. For instance, those who characterize terrain as a ___(2)____ may hope to conjure a picture of useless space. Those who characterize it as a ___(3)____ ecology may hope to create the idea of its worth within a larger environmental cycle.
1) arguments; 2) wasteland; 3) vital
1) arguments; 2) frontier; 3) vital
1) arguments; 2) wasteland; 3) trivial
1) arguments; 2) timberland; 3) trivial
Or consider how one might define patriotism. If we argue that patriotism involves supporting all the policies of one's country, right or wrong, then we can say that the ___(1)_____ were good patriots and ____(2)____ was not. If we argue that patriotism involves guiding and ___(3)_____ the policies of one's country, then we would say the opposite about Nazis and King.
1) Nazis; 2) Martin Luther King Jr.; 3) correcting
1) Martin Luther King Jr.; 2) Nazis; 3) correcting
1) Nazis; 2) Martin Luther King Jr.; 3) maintaining
1) Martin Luther King Jr.; 2) Nazis; 3) maintaining
___(1)____ or ___(2)_____ definitions can drive arguments. Debates might arise because of competing definitions of an ambiguous term or phrase.
1) Unclear; 2) slippery
1) Established; 2) slippery
1) Established; 2) rigid
1) Unclear; 2) rigid
Often, a particular ___(1)_____ will prompt an argument over definitions. Someone may ask if a particular ___(2)____ or thing fits into a broader ___(3)____.
1) power; 2) event; 3) framework
1) debate; 2) object; 3) understanding
1) dimension; 2) culture; 3) category
1) situation; 2) event; 3) category
A more narrow argument of definitions often presents itself in court trials, when the __(1)____ must decide if a particular event fits into a definition that has already been ____(2)____. Was it murder or manslaughter? Was the driver reckless or merely careless? Was the bar patron disorderly or annoying? Is this copyright infringement or artistic license? In such cases, the definition already __(3)____ and the lawyers debate the specifics, trying to contrast or compare them with the definition.
1) jury; 2) framed; 3) exits
1) jury; 2) outlined; 3) exists
1) plaintiff; 2) alleged; 3) exists
1) defendant; 2) outlined; 3) exists
However, more narrow arguments of definitions don't belong __(1)___ to court proceedings. Consider some important ___(2)____ debates from recent ___(3)____: Is oral sex "real" sex? Is hooding a prisoner and shocking him with electrodes a form of torture? Is bailing out the nation's big banks a form of socialism or federalism? Is a lone terrorist truly a terrorist?
1) solely; 2) political; 3) news
1) solely; 2) social; 3) entertainment
1) solely; 2) political; 3) history
1) solely; 2) historical; 3) politics
Arguments over definitions may arise because a subject has so many ____(1)____. Words like science, God, love, marriage, economy, war, and peace evoke a huge number of possible definitions. And people across nations, ___(2)____, towns, or even within a single __(3)_____ are likely to hold different definitions.
1) dimensions; 2) cultures; 3) classroom
1) connotations; 2) cultures; 3) world
1) implications; 2) cultures; 3) universe
1) dimensions; 2) cultures; 3) world
Science to one group of people might be ___(1)___ to another. War to one group might be __(2)____ to another. In all these cases, people debate a word that seems obvious or ___(3)____ to someone else.
1) irrelevant; 2) defense; 3) self-evident
1) mythology; 2) terrorism; 3) self-evident
1) mythology; 2) defense; 3) self-evident
1) irrelevant; 2) terrorism; 3) self-evident
It may be easy to __(1)___ all this potential diversity of thought, to simply announce, "One person's trash is another person's treasure," but people who share a world, a democracy, an environment, a community, a workplace, or a classroom must have some shared definitions. They must have a common understanding of certain concepts; otherwise, decisions about __(2)____ are nearly __(3)____.
1) disregard; 2) public affairs; 3) impossible
1) disregard; 2) scholarship; 3) tenable
1) disregard; 2) research; 3) impossible
1) disregard; 2) public affairs; 3) tenable
Arguing definitions is more than __(1)____. Those who define terms in any situation define the intellectual ___(2)____. Those who know how to argue definitions are those who define the starting points of other debates—and even shape ___(3)___ in the long run.
1) wordplay; 2) framework; 3) institutional scholarship
1) wordplay; 2) landscape; 3) policy
1) witticism; 2) landscape; 3) policy
1) witticism; 2) framework; 3) institutional scholarship
As you read the essays and images for this chapter, notice how the authors forward a ___(1)___ definition of their topics. Either directly or__(2)____, they make a case for a particular way of ___(3)____.
1) narrow; 2) forthright; 3) seeing
1) narrow; 2) subtly; 3) seeing
1) broad; 2) subtly; 3) knowing
1) broad; 2) forthright; 3) knowing
Each discipline defines human in a particular way:
as a tool-using animal, as a symbol user, as a spiritually motivated being, as a conscious dreamer, and so on.
Geographers always redefine the nature of their field; psychologists constantly reshape the boundaries of their study; historians take on increasingly more diverse questions about human affairs.
an institution that creates new knowledge, a tradition that dispenses what is already known, a community of scholars that questions what is already known, or even a service that enables people to enter the workforce.
a chemical attraction, a social declaration, an interpersonal commitment, an emotional feeling, a gift from God, a state of selflessness, a highly evolved psychological attribute.
Each discipline debates the definition of its own work:
Geographers always redefine the nature of their field; psychologists constantly reshape the boundaries of their study; historians take on increasingly more diverse questions about human affairs.
an institution that creates new knowledge, a tradition that dispenses what is already known, a community of scholars that questions what is already known, or even a service that enables people to enter the workforce.
as a tool-using animal, as a symbol user, as a spiritually motivated being, as a conscious dreamer, and so on.
a chemical attraction, a social declaration, an interpersonal commitment, an emotional feeling, a gift from God, a state of selflessness, a highly evolved psychological attribute.
Higher education itself wrestles with its identity:
as a tool-using animal, as a symbol user, as a spiritually motivated being, as a conscious dreamer, and so on.
a chemical attraction, a social declaration, an interpersonal commitment, an emotional feeling, a gift from God, a state of selflessness, a highly evolved psychological attribute.
Geographers always redefine the nature of their field; psychologists constantly reshape the boundaries of their study; historians take on increasingly more diverse questions about human affairs.
an institution that creates new knowledge, a tradition that dispenses what is already known, a community of scholars that questions what is already known, or even a service that enables people to enter the workforce.
