#17 - Humankind would not have survived, as it clearly has

[James Finch]

Hi akanshalsat,

The stimulus proceeds by giving us a conditional statement (B A), with A being obviously true, then proceeds to say that B is a form of C (B C), concluding by logical inference that A C. (A being "human survival," B being "sacrifice," and C being "altruism")

Answer choice (A) follows this same structure:

Increased Study Time Grades Raised

contrapositive being

Grades Raised Increased Study Time

then gives us

Increased Study Time Good Time Management

After telling us that some grades are raised, thus giving us the A condition, it then concludes that there is some good time management, because we can infer A C from the same A B C setup as we had in the stimulus.

Hope this clears things up!

[captwentworth]

1. I have a question related to the diagramming of "Sacrifice Altruism"

Initially, I did not recognize that "A is a form of B" can be diagrammed as a conditional statement "A B"

After giving some thoughts, here's one way I came to think of it: I thought of it in terms of a Venn Diagram, where A is a small circle inside a larger circle B (because A is a part of B). This led me to diagram "A B" where every A is B.

Could you confirm if this makes sense/if this is a logically valid reason for diagramming "A is a form of B" as "A B"?

Even if so, I'm afraid that drawing Venn Diagrams won't always work and that I might not be able to quickly identify/diagram other variations of a conditional statement that aren't in the traditional conditional format (e.g., statements that aren't in the "if A, then B" format or that do not include key words, such as "unless" or "requires"). This leads me to my next question -

2. Would you have any advice/tips for quickly identifying conditional statements that aren't in the traditional conditional format (e.g., "A is a form of B")? Or should I try to go through a similar thought process as to what I have done above?

[Dana D]

Hey Capt,

I wouldn't think of conditional reasoning in terms of a Venn Diagram, but rather in terms of two sets of conditions.

Sufficient conditions always tell us more information because when we meet this requirement, we know we also will meet the necessary requirements.

In this example, we know that people sacrificing themselves for their kids is a sufficient condition, and that this sacrifice is also a form of altruism.

Anytime we see a sacrifice like that also know we are seeing altruism - this can be represented as Sacrifice Altruism.

If we are told that something was Altruistic on it's own, we couldn't say with certainty that this thing also involved sacrifice - no further information is generated by just being given a necessary condition.

You can apply this method of thinking to other stimuli on the test. In this example, your thinking "A is a form of B" is not incorrect, but we don't want to get in the habit of thinking that all sufficient conditions are parts or subsets of larger ideas because that is not always the case.

Hope this helped!