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General questions relating to LSAT Logical Reasoning.
 ellenb
  • Posts: 260
  • Joined: Oct 22, 2012
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#6535
Dear Powerscore,

I am trying to grasp the idea of no or none. What is their role int the argument?
from what i know they introduce the sufficent and negate the necessary.

ex: Lesson 2, number 6 From class lecture, answer B

'No people who understand their musical roots will be in the audience if the audience will not be treated to a good show"

From the rule that I know: no here should be introducing the sufficient which is musical roots and negate the "not be treated with a good show"

Musical Roots-> Good show

is this what happend?

or we might have from the drill in the homework lesson 2

#18 None but the proud is arrogant

P->not A

because None introduces the sufficient and negates the necessary.

or


#22 (the same drill)

No one in the latin department is dissallowed from teaching multiples classes this sepmester.

LT->Al

No one (meaning no one person?) vs. None how would this be different?
So in this case no and no one have the same function?



Or
#4 (the same drill)

If you are not an electrician, then you must be an architect.

this is totally different type of no (negetaing it correct?)

not E->A



Thanks a lot in advance to try to clarify these none, no and not. I just want to make sure I know what exactly their function is.

Regards,

Ellen
 Nikki Siclunov
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 1362
  • Joined: Aug 02, 2011
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#6542
"No" and "none" introduce a negative, antagonistic relationship between two entities. In their simplest form, phrases such as "No A's are B's" and "None of the A's are B's" can be diagrammed as:

A :arrow: NOT B
B :arrow: NOT A.

The relationship between A and B can also be represented as:

A :dblline: B.

Let me discuss the examples you provide:

'No people who understand their musical roots will be in the audience if the audience will not be treated to a good show"

In this case, the word "if" introduces a sufficient condition. So:

no GS :arrow: no UMR (i.e. UMR :arrow: GS)

None but the proud is arrogant

Here, "none but" is equivalent in meaning to "only", which indicates a necessary condition; this phrase is quite different from the generic use of the pronoun "none":

Arrogant :arrow: Proud

No one in the Latin department is disallowed from teaching multiples classes this semester.

Here, you have to think about the double negation: If no one in the Latin department is disallowed, it follows that everyone IS allowed. So:

Latin Department :arrow: Allowed to teach multiple classes

If you are not an electrician, then you must be an architect.

This is a completely different construction, whereby the absence of a condition is sufficient to establish the necessary condition:

not Electrician :arrow: Architect

Compare this to:

No electricians are architects

Whereby one cannot be both an electrician and an architect:

E :arrow: not A
A :arrow: not E
A :dblline: E

To sum up, words such as "none" and "no" can be used in so many ways that it's impossible to arrive at a unified "formula" that helps diagram every single possible variation on their use. As always, look at the statement in its entirety and think about the absolute relationship between the entities/events/conditions that it represents. In its most simplistic form, "no" does introduce a sufficient condition ("No Lawyers are Doctors", i.e. Lawyer :arrow: Not Doctor). As you can see, however, there are other constructions that deviate significantly from this paradigm.

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