Reference no: EM133338291

The Vinland Map, a parchment document featuring an ink drawing of the North American Atlantic coast, is purported to date from the early 1400s. Mass spectrometer analysis of the parchment supports this date, but studies of the map's ink have found that it contains traces of anatase - a form of titanium dioxide not synthesized until the 1920s. Although the parchment on which it is drawn may be centuries old, the Vinland Map itself is indisputably fake, since anatase has never been found to occur in nature.

The argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it

1. Fails to rule out the possibility that some of the ink on the map was applied to the parchment long after the map was created.

2. Generalizes from one type of case to another type of case that differs from the first in possibly relevant respects.

3. Illegitimately infers that because a set of things has a certain property, each member of that set has the property.

4. Takes a condition that is necessary for the conclusion to be true as one that is sufficient for the conclusion to be true.

5. Applies scientific findings to an issue that lies beyond the legitimate scope of science.