This argument recommends the all left-handed people should pursue a career in
business and that right-handed people should learn to imitate the
business practices
of left-handed people.To support this recommendation the
speaker cites a study of
1,000 prominent business executives, among whom 2 1 percent were photographed
while writing with their
left hand.The speaker then points out that only 11 percent
of the general population is left-handed. The argument suffers from several logical
flaws and is therefore unconvincing.
First of all, the study amounts to scant evidence of the speaker''s implicit conclusion
that left-handedness contributes to business success. Just because photographs
show a person writing with his or her left
hand does not necessarily mean that the
person is left-handed; many people are ambidextrous-using either hand to write or
using one hand to write while using the other hand for other tasks. Besides, the 1,000
executives from the study are not necessarily representative of the overall population
of prominent business executives. Moreover, many prominent
executives might have
risen to their status not by way of their achievements or business acumen but through
other means-such as familial relationships. In short, the photographs in themselves
prove little about the causal relationship between left-handedness and the ability to
succeed in business.
Even if left-handed people are more Likely to have an innate ability to
succeed in
business than right-handed people are, the author''s conclusion that all left-handed
people should pursue business careers unfairly assumes that all left-handed people
are similar in terms of their talents, interests, and motivations. Common sense informs
me that the best vocational choice for any person depends on a variety of factors.
Thus, without clearer evidence that left-handed people tend to be successful in business
but unsuccessful in other vocations the speaker cannot justify such a sweeping
recommendation for left-handed people.
Even if most left-handed people would be well advised to pursue business careers,
the speaker''s recommendation for right-handed people is unwarranted. Common
sense informs me that any innate business acumen with which left-handed people
might be endowed cannot be imitated. Moreover, the speaker assumes without substantiation
that the way in which left-handed people conduct business is the only
way to succeed in business. It is entirely possible that right-handed people have certain
natural ways of thinking that lend themselves better to other business approaches.
Without considering and ruling out this possibility the speaker cannot convince me
that right-handed people should imitate the business practices of left-handed people.
In sum, the argument is logically unsound.To strengthen it the speaker must show
that the 1,000 executives in the photos were in fact using their dominant hand, that
they are representative of all prominent executives, and that prominence in business
is generally the result of an executive''s business practices.To better assess the argument
I would need to compare the percentage of left-handed people who succeed in
business with those who succeed in other vocations. I would also need more information
about the business practices of left-handed people to determine whether
they employ similar practices, and whether right-handed people who have succeeded
in business employ different practices.
More abstracts about the Left-handed people and success in business