#23 - Problem: If Shayna congratulates Daniel on his award

[SethHarrell]

One problem I'm running into here is that I'm reading a lot of people state that it's unknown whether or not Daniel prefers honesty to kindness, but it states in the problem that if she does not congratulate him, then she will hurt his feelings. Isn't this showing Shayna's opinion that he, in fact, does have a preference of kindness over honesty?
That's the reason I didn't select D.
In the principle, it gives an exception to insincerity, when you're speaking with someone that prefers kindness to honesty.
Because of this, I chose B.

[Hanin Abu Amara]

Hi!

While she might hurt his feelings, maybe he prefers that his feelings be hurt but know the truth over not knowing the truth. Knowing that he was hurt doesn't tell us what his actual preference is. We can't make logical jumps that aren't supported.

Just like in real life someone can prefer honestly while still not liking what they hear.

Hope that helps

[AnaSol]

Hi,

This question stem: The principle, if valid, most helps to justify the reasoning in which one of the following arguments concerning the problem?

I didn't recognize this as a Must be True as it says "most helps", can you explain in detail how to ascertain what the question is asking me to do?

Thanks,

[Adam Tyson]

It's an interesting question stem, AnaSol! Yes, it asks for the answer that most helps, but it's not helping something in the stimulus. We're actually being asked to strengthen "the reasoning in which one of the following arguments." So the flow of information is downward, from the stimulus to the answer choices, rather than upward from the answer choices to the stimulus. Thus, it's best categorized as a Most Strongly Supported question.

But it also feels a lot like a Strengthen-Principle, because the Principle in the stimulus, when applied to the facts in the Problem, help support one of the arguments in the answers.

Ultimately, how you categorize it is less important than you understanding the task you've been given. What are you supposed to do, and what might you prephrase before looking at the answers? What does the Principle tell Shayna to do? Here, you might be well served by prephrasing things like "if she congratulates him, she better believe he would prefer kindness to honesty," or the contrapositive, "if she doesn't believe he wants kindness instead of honesty, she shouldn't congratulate him." Those would be answers that follow from the application of the Principle to the particulars of this Problem.

[britangle]

I have a question about the meaning of "will": (1) If Shayna congratulates, "she will misrepresent her true feelings" and (2) If Shayna does not congratulate, "she will hurt his feelings." Does the two "will"s here mean these are facts known to both Shayna and Daniel: If Shayna congratulates, Daniel knows Shayna is insincere and if Shayna does not congratulate, Shayna knows Daniel will be hurt. Or does the "will" mean that each party is only aware of their own feelings?

Also, what about Option D's "would be hurt"? Is it a fact known to both Shayna and Daniel, or Daniel alone? Because if Shayna knows Daniel would be hurt by insincere congratulations, doesn't that mean Shayna believes Daniel prefers honesty to kindness?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi britangle,

You asked:

Does the two "will"s here mean these are facts known to both Shayna and Daniel: If Shayna congratulates, Daniel knows Shayna is insincere and if Shayna does not congratulate, Shayna knows Daniel will be hurt. Or does the "will" mean that each party is only aware of their own feelings?

No, there is no indication that the facts are known to both people. In fact, knowledge doesn't come into play in either conditional statement in the problem. The only place where knowledge (or more accurately, belief) is relevant is in the principle, in which the only possible exception to never being insincere is when one believes that the recipient prefers kindness to honesty.

Incidentally, since the principle doesn't mention hurt feelings at all, the second part of the problem stating that she will hurt Daniel's feelings if she does not congratulate him is not really relevant to the correct answer.

Answer D incorrectly mixes the terms in the stimulus by stating that Daniel's feelings would be hurt if he knew that her congratulations were insincere. And we definitely do not want to assume that Shayna either knows or believes anything about Daniel's feelings in Answer D.

Also, while Answer D states that Daniel's feelings would be hurt if he knew that her congratulations were insincere, Daniel's feelings would also be hurt is she doesn't congratulate him (based on the problem given in the stimulus), so this presents a situation in which his feelings would be hurt either way, and we can't determine whether he has a preference one way or the other. In other words, would he rather have his feelings hurt because her congratulations are insincere or because she didn't congratulate him at all?