#25- Any popular television series that is groundbreaking is

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thank you!

[ava17]

How would we diagram this question and answer choice C? My diagrams (below) did not match:

PT --> GB --> CA
PT--Some--> not CA ---> not GB

(C) UB --> EF
notEF --> not UB

Thanks!

[Robert Carroll]

ava,

For the stimulus:

PTS + GB CA

PTS CA

PTS GB

The first premise is a single conditional. It claims that if two sufficient conditions are both met (a thing is a popular television series, and the thing is groundbreaking), then the necessary condition is met (the thing is critically acclaimed).

The second premise should be distinguished on its own, as should the conclusion. The second premise is a statement claiming that not all things that are popular television series are critically acclaimed. Any "not all this are that" statement is a "some" statement. If "not all this are that," then "some this are not that." So, "some popular television series are not critically acclaimed," as diagrammed above.

The conclusion has the same form, so I think that should make sense after the previous paragraph's discussion of the "not all" language.

Answer choice (C):

BIOG + BIASED EF

BIOG EF

BIOG BIASED

It's really important in answer choice (C) and in the stimulus to treat the two sufficient conditions of the first premise in each separately. Because the second premise deals with only one of those conditions, and the conclusion relates those two conditions to each other, if you combine them into a single condition, you can't really diagram the rest of the argument.

Robert Carroll

[SGD2021]

Hello,
In answer choice B, can the conclusion of that answer choice be read as a "some" statement? ("those students" refers to the "some students" mentioned in the premise).

[Robert Carroll]

SGD2021,

In fact, no - a "some" statement is indefinite but "those students" is definite.

Imagine I am exasperated by people talking in a movie theater during a movie. Compare these two statements:

"Some people are so rude."

"Those people are so rude."

In the first situation, I'm being quite passive-aggressive - I probably mean to refer to those people, but grammatically I'm just saying that some people in the world are rude. In the second situation, I'm being more straightforward and specifically referring to certain rude people. So there is a difference. That difference is a mark against answer choice (B) in this situation.

Robert Carroll

[adricristofari]

I got this right but I can't figure out what is wrong with answer E

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Let's take a look at answer choice (E), adricristofari. Here's how we would diagram it:

Premise: worth reading worth buying
Conclusion: worth reading worth buying

That's a mistake in reasoning. The terms were negated but not reversed. In our stimulus, we have a statement and valid contrapositive.

Hope that helps!