What Arguments Can Be Made Both in Support of and in Opposition

question 85

Essay

What arguments can be made both in support of and in opposition to the proposition that elected officials should decide public policy matters based on public opinion? Which side makes the more persuasive case and why?

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Definitions:

Existential Generalization

A logical operation that infers the existence of at least one member of a group from a statement about an individual or individuals.

Existential Instantiation

A principle in logic and philosophy that allows from the acknowledgment of the existence of at least one instance of a particular predicate.

Universal Instantiation

A logical rule that states if a property or relation holds for all members of a class or domain, then it holds for any specific member of that class or domain.

Universal Instantiation (UI)

A principle in logic stating that what is true of everything in a particular class must also be true of any specific member of that class.