#15 - People who have doctorates in the liberal arts are

[Adam Tyson]

You've diagrammed answer C incorrectly there, ssnasir. The phrase "the only people" refers to people who are interested in improving their intellects, so that is the Necessary Condition. You should not have negated that in your diagram! The Sufficient Condition is not interested in making money, so you should have negated your Sufficient Condition instead of your Necessary Condition. Once you get the negation in the right place, you'll see why that answer is of no use to us in justifying the conclusion.

When you are stuck on a claim with "the only" in it, ask yourself "who are the only ones?" or "what is the only thing?" or " what is the only way?" The answer will be the Necessary Condition, and the other condition will be Sufficient for it. For example:

"The only thing better than pizza is free pizza."

What is the only thing that is better? Free pizza. Free pizza is necessary. The diagram here would be:

Better than Pizza Free Pizza

(if something is better than pizza, it must be free pizza)

Once you know what "the only" refers to, you have your Necessary Condition!

[ssnasir]

You've diagrammed answer C incorrectly there, ssnasir. The phrase "the only people" refers to people who are interested in improving their intellects, so that is the Necessary Condition. You should not have negated that in your diagram! The Sufficient Condition is not interested in making money, so you should have negated your Sufficient Condition instead of your Necessary Condition. Once you get the negation in the right place, you'll see why that answer is of no use to us in justifying the conclusion.

When you are stuck on a claim with "the only" in it, ask yourself "who are the only ones?" or "what is the only thing?" or " what is the only way?" The answer will be the Necessary Condition, and the other condition will be Sufficient for it. For example:

"The only thing better than pizza is free pizza."

What is the only thing that is better? Free pizza. Free pizza is necessary. The diagram here would be:

Better than Pizza Free Pizza

(if something is better than pizza, it must be free pizza)

Once you know what "the only" refers to, you have your Necessary Condition!

Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful!!

[Jfriedberg24]

I guess what I am really struggling to understand is how "Only" serves as a necessary condition indicator whereas "THE only" seems to indicate a sufficient condition.

[Luke Haqq]

Hi Jfriedberg24!

Using the example Adam provided, that sentence could have been phrased to mean the same thing without the word "the." It could have been "Only free pizza is better than pizza." That would have been diagramed the same way:

better than pizza free pizza

In other words, if something is better than pizza, then it must be free pizza. Put differently, if you have something better than pizza, what could it be? Based on that conditional diagram, there is only one option: it must be free pizza.