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6.1: The Building Blocks of an Argument

  • Page ID
    67177
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    "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"

    --Daniel Patrick Moynihan

    Screen Shot 2020-09-06 at 4.34.14 PM.png
    6.1.1: "Napoleon Boneparte" by Unkown is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

    After the death of the famous French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte , an autopsy was performed and the doctors announced that he had died of a perforated stomach ulcer that had turned cancerous. Some of his supporters did not believe this. They were convinced he was murdered. Their beliefs were fueled by the fact that Napoleon himself had written that he was being poisoned. What evidence existed to support his accusations?

    Fortunately, from his wishes in his will, many relatives were given strands of his hair that could be tested. One hundred years after his death Napoleon’s hair was tested and the results indicated that Napoleon had a degree of arsenic in his body. This raw data seemed to suggest that he was poisoned. But 20 years later a second interpretation of the data suggested that he was killed by his wallpaper.

    In the 1800’s a type of wallpaper that used a color call Scheele Green, was made with lead. That lead gave off arsenic compounds that could be absorbed by the human body and eventually effecting the health of that person. Napoleon’s room had this wallpaper.

    But a third interpretation indicated that the wallpaper did not contain enough arsenic to kill Napoleon, but it did contain enough to exacerbate a stomach ulcer which eventually killed him. So, although the wallpaper wasn’t the ultimate killer, it did seem to contribute to Napoleon’s death. The conclusion indicated that Napoleon Bonaparte was not intentionally poisoned.

    This story illustrates two important aspects of evidence,

    • The quality of evidence
    • The accurate interpretation of evidence

    Both of which we will explore in this chapter.


    This page titled 6.1: The Building Blocks of an Argument is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jim Marteney (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .

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