#5 - Economic considerations color every aspect of

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (C)

The stimulus argues that economics color international dealings, and lenders set terms for borrowers. The stimulus concludes that nations that owe money to other nations cannot be world leaders.

The stimulus proceeds as if the terms between borrowers and lenders have something to do with world leadership, but the stimulus provides no basis for that belief. Since you are asked to identify an assumption, you should look for a choice that links borrowing and lending to leadership.

Answer choice (A): The argument concerns whether borrowing from other nations prevents a nation from world leadership, not whether a world leader would have to be a lender. In a way, this choice confuses "not borrow" and "lend," because the argument assumes "World Leader→not Borrow," but this choice inaccurately delivers "World Leader→Lend."

Answer choice (B): The argument concerns which nations cannot be world leaders, but this choice discusses what conditions are sufficient to be certain that a country is a world leader. This response confuses necessary and sufficient requirement.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct choice. The argument assumed that the term-setting in the lender-borrower relationship prevents the borrower from being a world leader, and this choice states that assumption.

Answer choice (D): This choice provides a way for borrower nations to be world leaders, which certainly does not support the conclusion that borrower nations can never be world leaders.

Answer choice (E): The argument concerns whether one particular type of dealing-- money lending-- has influence on which nations can be world leaders. The probable truth that a nation cannot be a world leader if it does not deal somewhat with other nations does not speak to the specific issue of whether being a borrower prevents a nation from world leadership.

[olafimihan.k]

Hello,

Could you explain how you would diagram this stimulus. I chose (B) but after reading the explanation, this answer choice supposedly confuses "a necessary and sufficient requirement". Which part of the premises and/or conclusion would be the necessary and sufficient conditions?

thank you.

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, Olafimiham,

Good question. This argument proceeds as follows:

• P1: When nations borrow money from other nations, they are analogous to individuals.
• P2: Lenders (lending nations) set the terms for borrowers (borrowing nations).
• Conclusion: A borrower nation cannot be a world leader.

The assumption here is the implicit connection the author makes, that is:

• If terms are set for a borrower nation by a lender nation, then the borrower nation cannot be a leader.

The assumption, as stated above, is in the form of a conditional statement. In the author's argument, the conclusion itself is a necessary condition. The author believes that given that a borrower nation has terms set by a lender nation, then it is necessarily true that the borrower cannot be a world leader. Thus, each part of the assumption (above) can be understood as follows:

• If terms are set for a borrower nation by a lender nation (sufficient condition), then the borrower nation cannot be a leader (necessary condition).
  Terms set by others Cannot be a leader

Note that this is a good match for Answer Choice (C).

Now let's take a look at Answer Choice (B). This statement could be understood as follows:

• If terms are set for a borrower nation by a lender nation, then this lender nation will be a world leader.

There are a couple issues here. First, the purported necessary condition here ("this lender nation will be a world leader") is indeed the sufficient condition of the contraposition of the actual assumption:

• Assumption: If terms are set for a borrower nation by a lender nation, then the borrower nation cannot be a leader.
  Contrapositive: If a nation is a leader, then terms are not set for it by another nation.

Thus, the sufficient condition of this contrapositive is used as the necessary condition in answer choice (B). Further the other issue with answer choice (B) is that the assumption does not concern whether or not the lender nation is a leader but rather the "non-leader" status of the borrower nation.

Lastly, note the extreme language in answer choice (B) ("is certain to be"). When you encounter such strong language in an answer choice for an assumption problem, pay particular attention to it. Such strong language lessens the possibility that a given answer will truly be a necessary precondition or assumption necessary for a conclusion to be valid.

I hope this helps!

[kwcflynn]

To respond to your last note about strong language in Assumption questions: I have been advised to stay away from broad language, but I have also been advised to look for the most "minimalist" answer. Any chance you could explain this?

Thank you very much!

[James Finch]

Hi KWC Flynn,

There are two types of Assumption questions: those similar to Justify questions that introduce a new term in the conclusion, which must then be connected to the premises in some way, which we call Supporter Assumptions; and those that are fairly complete arguments in the stimulus, with no clear logical gap, that then will have an outside Defender Assumption as a correct answer, which if untrue would make the conclusion untrue as well. These Defender Assumptions are much harder to Prephrase, and require students to use the Assumption Negation technique to efficiently test the contending answer choices.

Here, we have a new term, "world leader," introduced in the conclusion, which will have to be linked to the premises; thus a Supporter Assumption. Prephrasing how that would have to work, we can see that the necessary linkage to make here is:

Borrow Money Have Terms Set By Other Nation World Leader

We're already given that Borrow Money Have Terms Set By Other Nation, and Borrow Money:arrow: World Leader is the conclusion, so the missing piece must be Have Terms Set By Other Nation World Leader, which is exactly what the correct answer choice, (C), says.

Hope this clears things up!

[nosracgus]

Hi PS,

I understand why C is the correct answer thanks to the helpful dialogue above, but I am having trouble understanding how to properly rule out answer choice D.

Could you please show me what negating D would look like? Would this be more of a Weaken answer choice?

Thanks!
C

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Welcome to the forum, nosracgus.

Longer conditional answer choices can be a bit tricky to negate. To negate it, you would say that world leader nations CANNOT borrow from another nation EVEN IF that nation does not set the terms of the dealings.

We can look at the answer choice conditionally. The answer choice states that the only way that world leader nations can borrow is if the other nation does not set the terms. We could diagram that like so:

other nation does not set terms ok to borrow

To negate it we would show that the sufficient does not require the necessary condition

Other nation does not set terms not ok to borrow.

Both the first paragraph above and the conditional reasoning are representing the same idea behind the negation of answer choice (D). When we look at that negation---it's not ok to borrow even if the other nation does not set the terms--we actually strengthen the stimulus. The NEGATION agrees with the stimulus. That is the opposite of what we want to see in an assumption negation test. Why? Because the assumption negation technique helps us imagine what the argument would be like without the suggested assumption. If the argument is stronger without it, then the answer choice certainly couldn't be required for the conclusion to follow.

Hope that helps!
Rachael