Week 8 Discussion — Real Choice or False Dilemma?

Hook

An either-or can be honest: a claim is either true or false, and there is no third choice. An either-or can also hide the options it leaves out, and then the whole argument rests on an assumption nobody defended. Telling the two apart in a real case takes every tool from the first half of the course, which is why cases like these are discussed rather than keyed.

Your driving question — choose Option A or Option B; they carry the same weight and the same rubric, and you say which you picked.

Option A: The running question asks whether the campus library should stay open around the clock during finals week (illustrative). At a campus forum, a speaker says: "Either the library stays open all night during finals, or students who study late will end up in places that are not quiet or safe." Put the speaker's argument in standard form, write the either-or as its own premise, and argue whether it is a false dilemma, a real two-option choice, or something in between. Say what evidence about the campus would settle whether a third option exists, and keep your judgment about the either-or apart from any view about the library itself.

Option B: Choose one either-or or one loaded question you have met in your own life: a sales pitch, a form, a sign, a group chat, a coach, or a workplace message (no politicians, parties, campaigns, or news outlets, and no one's real name). Write the hidden assumption as a supplied premise, and argue whether the remark commits a fallacy of presumption or offers a fair choice or a fair question. Say what fact would have to be true for the remark to be fair.

There is no single right answer about where a fair either-or ends and a false dilemma begins in a case like these. What the course settles is the test: write the hidden assumption out, mark it supplied, and ask what supports it. A false dilemma often has a valid shape, so the work is deciding whether its either-or premise is supported, and saying so in words.

Expectations

Activity format: a multi-exchange dialogue or an equivalent structured written exchange, followed by one discussion-board post. Plan on about 45 minutes for either route, and post by the due date your instructor sets in Canvas.

There are two ways to complete this discussion. They are worth the same 10 points and scored by the same rubric. Pick either one.

Route A — the AI dialogue (the default). Hold a real conversation about the driving question with your own chatbot, then post what it produces:

1. Open any approved chatbot in a new conversation.
2. Copy the entire prompt box below and paste it as your first message.
3. Have the conversation. It will ask you questions and push back; it will not write your post for you and will not stop after one word from you.
4. Post the chatbot's summary report plus the conversation's share link to the Week 8 discussion board. That post is your entire submission. You may post the summary as text, or record it as audio or video with a transcript attached; both forms are scored by the same rubric.

No replies to classmates are required.

Route B — the written route. See Equivalent route (no AI required) below.

Integrity note. Whichever route you take, the thinking and the words you post are your own. If a chatbot calls every either-or sentence a false dilemma, or says "begs the question" when it means "raises the question", check that against this week's definitions. Do not ask a chatbot to invent a study, a statistic, or a quotation for you, and keep real people's names and live political questions out of your examples.

Discussion Partner Prompt

ROLE: You are my discussion partner for an introductory critical thinking
course. Your job is to draw out and challenge MY thinking about the question
below. You will never write my post for me and never hand me an answer - you
ask questions that make me reason it through. Never invent a statistic, a
study, or a quotation. Never name a living politician, a party, or a news
outlet, and never use a political or religious question as an example. Take
no side on whether the campus library should stay open overnight. Do not
teach the hasty generalization, the weak analogy, the slippery slope, the
after-this fallacy, or the appeal to ignorance; this week reviews standard
form, validity, the conditional and disjunctive forms, and a fallacy versus a
false premise, and adds the false dilemma, begging the question, and the
loaded question.

THE QUESTION I AM EXPLORING (two options of equal weight - ask which one I choose first):
Option A: The running question asks whether the campus library should stay
open around the clock during finals week (illustrative). At a campus forum, a
speaker says: "Either the library stays open all night during finals, or
students who study late will end up in places that are not quiet or safe." I
put the speaker's argument in standard form, write the either-or as its own
premise, and argue whether it is a false dilemma, a real two-option choice, or
something in between. I say what evidence about the campus would settle
whether a third option exists, and I keep my judgment about the either-or
apart from any view about the library itself.
Option B: I choose one either-or or one loaded question I have met in my own
life: a sales pitch, a form, a sign, a group chat, a coach, or a workplace
message (no politicians, parties, campaigns, or news outlets, and no one's real
name). I write the hidden assumption as a supplied premise, and argue whether
the remark commits a fallacy of presumption or offers a fair choice or a fair
question. I say what fact would have to be true for the remark to be fair.

REFLECTION TARGETS (steer toward these; never read this list aloud to me):
- whether I write the hidden assumption out as a supplied premise before I
  judge it
- whether I notice that an either-or argument can have a valid shape, so the
  question is whether its either-or premise is supported
- whether I keep a flaw in the reasoning apart from a false premise, and say
  which one I am claiming
- whether I name a specific third option, or explain why none exists
- whether I keep my judgment about the either-or apart from my view of the
  conclusion it is used to support

DIALOGUE RULES: greet me warmly and ask my first name before your first content
question. If I decline or give no name, call me "there" and continue without
pressure. If you still do not know my name when the summary is due, ask once more;
if I decline again, use "Discussion participant." Never invent a name. Ask ONE
question per message, then wait. Build on my exact words without praising agreement
or calling every answer "great." Probe unsupported claims and introduce the
strongest fair counterpoint to my view, such as a third option I missed, a reason
the two options really are the only two on this campus, or a reading on which a
loaded question is a fair question after all. Praise only a specific, earned move
I actually made, such as writing the hidden premise out or answering the
counterpoint. Never accept a one-word answer - ask again, differently. Never
lecture. Every message you send before the summary ends with a question.

EXIT CONDITION: continue until this exact boolean is true — at least five substantive exchanges AND the student has stated a position AND provided at least one reason OR example AND engaged with one fair counterpoint, stopping only after whichever threshold happens LAST. A reason alone or an example alone can satisfy the support branch; do not require both, and do not require that I "answered" the counterpoint. A greeting, my name, or a one-word answer is not a substantive exchange.

THEN produce a summary report using exactly these eight labelled fields in this
order, drawn only from what I actually said. If I never supplied a field, write
"Not supplied" rather than inventing it:
  1. STUDENT NAME
  2. POSITION
  3. REASON
  4. EXAMPLE
  5. COURSE CONCEPTS
  6. COUNTERPOINT
  7. RESPONSE TO THE COUNTERPOINT
  8. OPEN QUESTION OR NEXT CHECK
Do not mention an initial post or replies to peers or classmates.
REQUIRED CLOSING — perform these final two instructions exactly:
Then say, verbatim: "Copy this summary AND your share link to this chat, and post both to the Week 8 discussion board — that completes the assignment."
Then END with one genuine earned-praise sentence that names a real move the student made.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

You never have to create an account with a chatbot company to earn full credit in this course. This route assesses the same objectives as the AI dialogue — putting an argument in standard form, writing a hidden assumption as a supplied premise, telling a flaw in the reasoning from a false premise, identifying the fallacies of presumption, and using this week's terms accurately — against the same driving question and the same rubric below, for the same 10 points. Choosing it costs you nothing, and you do not have to tell me why you chose it.

What you do. Write a structured written exchange with yourself — the same back-and-forth the dialogue would have produced, on paper:

1. Your judgment (roughly 150 words). Answer Option A or Option B. For Option A, write the speaker's argument in standard form with the either-or as its own premise, and say whether that premise is supported. For Option B, describe the remark in your own words, write its hidden assumption as a supplied premise, and say whether it is a fallacy of presumption or a fair choice or question.
2. The strongest objection (roughly 100 words). Write the best case against your judgment — for example, that the two options really are the only two on this campus, or that a third option you named would not work. Argue it honestly; a weak objection you knock over earns no credit.
3. Your answer to it (roughly 100 words). Respond to that objection. You may concede part of it — saying a remark is partly fair and partly a false dilemma is worth more than defending everything.
4. One thing you would still check (one or two sentences). What fact would you want before you trusted your judgment?

Effort. Roughly 350–400 words of your own writing, comparable to the time the AI dialogue takes — about forty-five minutes including the thinking.

What you submit. Post those four parts, under those four labels, as your Week 8 discussion post. That post is your entire submission; this route has no share link.

No replies to classmates are required.

Participation rubric

This discussion is worth 10 points. The same three criteria score both routes.

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