#2 - Physiological research has uncovered disturbing

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thanks!

[w35t]

Hello, I was wondering why A was right.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi w35t!

This is an Assumption question, meaning that we are looking for something that is necessary to the argument. So first we need to make sure we fully understand the argument.

Premise: Physiological research has linked a number of structural disorders to jogging
Premise: Veteran joggers suffer an equal percentage of injuries as beginning runners
Conclusion: Human anatomy is not able to withstand the stresses of jogging

If the author concludes that human anatomy is not able to withstand the stresses of jogging, the author must assume that jogging is causing these structural disorders. So we are looking for an answer choice that draws a causal relationship between jogging and the structural disorders.

Answer choice (A) is necessary for this argument because it indicates that there is a causal link between jogging and the structural disorders. To double-check this answer choice, we could apply the Assumption Negation Technique. To negate answer choice (A), we would say that the link between jogging and certain structural disorders is NOT a causal one. If jogging is not causing the structural disorders, that would attack the conclusion that human anatomy cannot withstand the stresses of jogging. So, therefore, answer choice (A) is necessary to the argument.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[Mattjsd]

Hi there,

While I understand that this argument is taking correlation between disorders and jogging for causation (jogging causes disorders), I don't quite get how the negation of A would weaken the argument.

If the link between jogging and certain structural disorders does not appear to be a causal one, couldn't the author just answer us that this still leaves room for a possible causal relationship between jogging and disorders ? I skipped this answer choice because the negation wasn't definitive enough and picked D instead.

Thank you!

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Matt!

Sure, if you negate answer choice (A) as "does not appear to be causal" it might leave open a very slight chance that it is still causal. But that's a pretty small chance. The negation of answer choice (A) still very strongly attacks the conclusion of the argument.

Meanwhile, if you negate answer choice (D), you get "No sports are safer for the human body than jogging." That negation definitely doesn't attack the conclusion. It doesn't matter whether or not there are other sports that are safer for the human body than jogging because this conclusion is not making a comparison between jogging and other sports. Maybe human anatomy isn't able to withstand the stresses of any sport. If that was the case, then just because there aren't any sports safer for the human body than jogging, that wouldn't necessarily mean that jogging wasn't still too stressful for human anatomy.

With the Assumption Negation Technique, the negation isn't always going to 100% decimate an argument. This can be especially true with causal arguments. But the negation should definitely attack the argument and it should hurt it more than the negation of any other answer choice. Answer choice (A) meets that criteria and so it is the best answer.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey