The diagram for "always" in conditional reasoning

[jling]

I understand the wording of "if; when; whenever; every; all; any; people who; in order to" are "SUFFICIENT indicators. But what about "always"? Example: Jamie always goes home for her vacation (page 10-28, #5).
What is the original diagram? Is it: (always) goes home for her vacation
or is it: for her vacation (always) goes home ??


Thanks,
joy

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi Joy,

Since the word "always" can be used in so many different contexts, it does not appear as a specific conditional reasoning indicator. It all depends on whether there are any other indicators in the sentence. If pressed, however, I'm inclined to put "always" in the necessary condition column. If A must always occur whenever B occurs, this means that B A.

In your specific example, ("Jamie always goes home for her vacation"), think about which of these two conditions - going home or being on vacation - tells us something about the other? For instance, do you know what must be true if Jamie is home? Does that automatically mean she is on vacation? Clearly not - Jamie can be home for a variety of other reasons (visiting parents, on weekends, etc.). But, what if Jamie is on vacation? Well, if she always goes home for her vacation, then clearly she must be home. Thus, the proper conditional diagram of your example would be:

• Vacation Home

As always, think about the relationship between the two conditions: which one tells us something about the other? The sufficient condition is all but a signal: it tells us that something else must also be true. Nothing more, nothing less.

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

[jling]

Yes it helps a lot! Thanks!
joy