Confusion about "Only"

[elbism]

This word always throws me because of the arbitrary nature of what condition it's introducing. In general I understand that 'only' and 'only if' introduce a necessary, while 'the only' introduces a sufficient. However, in this question I'm confused:

"Educator: Traditional classroom education is ineffective because education in such an environment is not truly a social process and only social processes can develop students' insights. In the traditional classroom, the teacher acts from outside the group and interaction between teachers and students is rigid and artificial.

The educator's conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?"

When I diagram the sentence "only social processes can develop students' insight" with the SP as the sufficient condition and DSI as the necessary condition, I can accurately follow the trail of logic to hit upon the correct answer, however this is incorrect since the only in this instance should introduce the necessary, making it DSI --> SP

This does not work in my conditional diagram to get the right answer. What am I missing here?
Thanks!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi,

"Only" and "only if" are necessary condition indicators: the proposition that immediately follows such indicators will be the necessary condition. Thus:

Only social processes can develop students' insights

Social processes is therefore a necessary condition for developing students' insights: only these processes, and nothing else, can do the job. That doesn't mean that social processes are guaranteed to develop students' insights. Think about it: only law school graduates can become attorneys. That doesn't mean that graduating from law school guarantees that you'll be an attorney.

The correct diagram of this statement is therefore this:

Develop students' insights Social Processes

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

[elbism]

thank you!