#15 - Zack's Coffeehouse schedules free poetry readings

[bebeg3168]

My diagram went like this:
PR ---most---W
W---some---PR
PR---> 1/2C
~1/2C--->~PR
This equates to "on some Wednesdays there is 1/2C"
I look at D and E and they both seem to make sense with the deduction I arrived at? Did I diagram wrong?

[Adam Tyson]

Your diagram is perfect, Bebe, but look at answer E again and you'll see that it does not say that there is half priced coffee on some Wednesdays. It says that there are some Wednesdays that do NOT have half priced coffee, and there is no proof of that! Maybe coffee is half price EVERY Wednesday!

[Capetowner]

Question related to the "almost every Wednesday":

Why is this interpreted as "most", yet in a question like PT54 S4 Q16, "almost certainly" is taken as necessity (100%)?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Capetowner,

"Almost every Wednesday" is describing how frequently something occurs (in this case how often Zack's coffeehouse schedules free poetry readings on Wednesdays). In terms of the different quantity words that appear in formal logic (such as "all, most, some, none"), "almost every" would fall within the category of "most" because it definitely indicates more than half (which is the definition of "most"), but not "all." In other words, we can confidently infer that Zack's coffeehouse schedules free poetry readings on most Wednesdays, and we can use that statement to connect to other formal logic statements in the argument to make additive inferences.

It's important to note, however, that while "almost every" would fall within the range of "most" (51-100%), it is not identical to the term "most," and you would not want to assume that the word "most" implies "almost every." Exactly what percentage would qualify as "almost every" is somewhat debatable/unclear as the term itself is somewhat vague, but personally I'd consider it at least over 90%.

In the same way, the word "many" implies "some" (which means "at least one") and would be diagrammed as a "some" statement for formal logic purposes, but the word "some" does not imply "many."

As for the term "almost certainly," this is describing the likelihood of an event rather than the frequency of an event, so it is not exactly the same idea, even though both ideas may be expressed as percentages. As for your claim that "almost certainly" is taken as necessity (100%) in PT54 S4 Q16, that is not correct. Looking over the explanation for that question, I don't see that claim (in fact, the explanation specifically mentions the difference between "almost certainly" and "certainly"), so please feel free to follow up on the forum post for that question if you have any further questions about the wording or any other aspects of that question.