#22 - The only preexisting recordings that are transferred

[NickSabanIsGod]

Hello,

I understand why you need the assumption "if not played on the radio then no profit" but I am having an issue understanding why E is diagrammed this way.

Would you be able to explain this? the wording "No recording that is not played on the radio" in (E) is throwing me off. The use of "No" and "not" so close together are making this difficult.

Thanks

[Kristina Moen]

Hello,

This question is a Justify question, which is very different from an Assumption question. Be careful - the answer choice is not something that the argument "needs." It is something that fills in the gap between the premise(s) and the conclusion. You approach these question types very differently!

Because the stimulus contains conditional reasoning, I'll start by diagramming it. It sounds like you understand why Answer Choice (E) is correct, but I will explain this for other test takers as well.
"The only preexisting recordings that are transferred onto compact disc are those that record companies believe will sell well enough on compact disc to be profitable." The word only is a Necessary Condition Indicator, but it is actually modifying the second part of that sentence. For example, "the only people who go to law school are people who took the LSAT" means that taking the LSAT is necessary for going to law school.

P1: Transferred to CD -> Company believes will sell enough to be profitable
P2: Few classic jazz played on radio
Conclusion: Most classic jazz not transferred to CD.

With a Justify question, look for the missing pieces. Here, premise 1 talks about being profitable, and premise 2 talks about being played on the radio. What you want is to get to the conclusion that classic jazz is not transferred to CD. So if you take the contrapositive of the first premise, you get:
Company does not believe will sell well enough to be profitable -> Not transferred to CD.

You want to get an answer choice that basically links profit to radio. So something that says:
Not played on radio -> Company does not believe will sell well enough to be profitable.

That's Answer Choice (E): "No recording that is not played on the radio is one that record companies believe would be profitable if transferred to compact disc."

The word "No" modifies the second part of this sentence, just like "only" modified the second part of the sentence "The only people who go to law school are people who took the LSAT." You might also think of another example - "No people who eat cheese are lactose intolerant." The word "no" modifies the second part of the sentence, which then becomes "People who eat cheese are not lactose intolerant." So what you get with Answer Choice (E) is:
Not played on the radio -> Record company do NOT believe would be profitable. Bingo!

[Vasuarya30]

Hey! I read the explanation and yet for this one I still can't see how C and E are different. I see them to both meaning the exact same thing. Please help, thanks!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Vasuarya,

What makes this question difficult are the conditional phrases "the only" and "no," which are diagrammed a bit differently than the usual sufficient and necessary indicators.

Answer C reads "the only recordings that are played on the radio are ones that the record companies believe can be profitably sold as compact discs" (my emphasis).

As Kristina mentions in her post above (Post #12), "the only" modifies the second half of the sentence.

In Answer C, "the only" modifies "ones that the record companies believe can be profitably sold as compact discs." The second word "are" in the sentence, which I've bolded, is the linking verb that connects the two terms.

Reworded, Answer C means "if recordings are played on the radio, then the record companies believe they can be profitably sold as compact discs" and can be diagrammed:

PR -> Profit

This is a Mistaken Negation of what we are looking for to Justify this argument.

What we want to Justify the argument is "if not played on radio, then not profitable," which would be diagrammed:

Not PR -> Not Profit

This is what Answer E states and is the correct diagram for Answer E.

The word "no" also modifies the second half of the sentence.

For example, the statement "no apples are oranges" would be diagrammed.

A -> Not O

More information on conditional reasoning, including Mistaken Negations and how to diagram "the only" and negative conditional terms such as "no," can be found in "The Logical Reasoning Bible" and any PowerScore LSAT course.