Diagramming Question

[voodoochild]

Instructors,

I recently read these statements in AM Newyork in NYC sub way this morning. I tried diagramming them. I am not sure about (2).

(1) Any presidential campaign must be followed by polls.

As Powerscore book says: Any = sufficient condition and "must" = necessary condition

Presidential campaign followed by polls.

Am I correct?

(2) A presidential campaign is any event in which citizens can elect their President.

(this one is confusing because generally statements of fact introduce sufficient conditions. for instance, robots are good. If an entity is a robot then it is good.
However, we have any modifier "any" preceding "event". In this case, "any" will trump "is". Is my understanding correct. It's a tricky sentence. (I am not sure about this sentence. Please help me )

Hence, any event in which citizens can elect their President presidential campaign.

(3)
Any presidential campaign is an event in which citizens can elect their President

Here, "any" will support "is". Hence, the diagramming would be:

Presidential campaign citizens can elect their President.
Am I correct?

Thanks
Voodoo

[Steve Stein]

Hey Voodoochild,

Thanks for your message. All three of your examples are correct--nice work! This conditional stuff can be tricky. Your third statement would probably be worded a bit differently on the test--something more along the lines of your first statement.

I hope that's helpful!

~Steve

[voodoochild]

Steve,
Thanks for your response. I have a quick question.



#1 Why is that the below two statements are diagrammed differently (essentially the necessary and sufficient conditions are swapped) ?


For instance, (a) A red rose is red. (red rose red)
(b) A presidential election is an event in which Citizens can elect their president.
Citizens can elect their president Presidential election.

It will be great if you can let me know whether the above two diagrams are accurate. To me, both the arguments are similar. Both express statements of facts. However, the direction of the arrow is reversed. Is it that there is a hidden sufficient condition in the modifier "in which"?

Also, I have a bad feeling that, under timed conditions during the exam, I may end up reversing the conditionality. Please help me These diagrams are driving me crazy. I am a bit confused

Thanks
Voodoo

[Steve Stein]

Hi voodoochild,

Thanks for your response. Your first diagram is correct: if it is a red rose, then it is red:

red rose red

Your second statement, however, has changed subtly (but significantly) since your earlier scenario on this thread--an p.e. is an event in which citizens elect the prez--basically says that if it's a presidential election, then it is an event in which citizens elect the prez:

Presidential election citizens elect prez.

If, on the other hand, your statement had been that "a presidential election is any event in which citizens elect the prez," that would mean that any (i.e. every) time the citizens elect the prez, it's a presidential election:

citizens elect prez Presidential election

Tricky! I hope that's helpful--let me know whether that clears it up--thanks!

~Steve

[voodoochild]

Steve,
Thanks for your response. Your replies, as usual, are always helpful. Here are some sentences. Please let me know whehter they are diagrammed correctly.

Sentence#1
"There are a lot of bad policies made by politicians who are not good thinkers." I have started using the meaning of the sentence to understand the direction of the arrow. I feel that the above sentence can be diagrammed as:

bad policies politicians who are not good thinkers

Am I correct?

Sentence#2 This one is from PT36 S3 Q17 - The purpose of a GTA is to explain every feature in any of the arts. I think that the diagram would be
feature in arts purpose

Am I correct?

Sentence#3 "the purpose of a GTA is to explain features in arts" then the diagram would be

purpose features in arts.

Is my understanding correct? Please let me know.

Sentence#4 "Buying a ticket online guarantees a seat in the concert." (I think buying a ticket seat in the concert)

Am I correct?

Sentence#5 "Buying a ticket online guarantees ANY/EVERY seat in the concert" (should we diagram it as seat in the concert bought a ticket online?) Not sure.

Am I correct?

Sentence #6
All presidential elections require all people to vote. I believe that there is an 'if and only if' relationship. i.e. Presidential elections people to vote.

Am I correct?

I think that anyone reading this thread will be immensely benefitted.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks

[Steve Stein]

Hi voodoochild,

Thanks for your questions.

#1: Incorrect. "A lot" is not the same as "every."

#2: Incorrect. That sentence would be diagrammed as:

GTA purpose explain every feature...

#3: Correct. GTA Purpose explain features

#4: Correct.

#5: Doesn't really make sense. This magic ticket appears to give you the option to choose any seat that you like? or does it entitle you to every seat in the house for a private showing?

#6: Incorrect. That would be pres election require all people to vote.

And, last but not least:

Read this thread Immense benefit

I hope that last one holds true!

~Steve

[voodoochild]

Steve,
Thanks for your replies. I guess my understanding of conditionals is not 100% yet.

Can you please explain a bit about #1? {Here's my thinking - if there is a bad policy, does it mean that it was made a politician who is not a good thinker. Could be. If someone is a bad thinker, will he make bad policy? Not necessarily. Hence, diagram would be Some policies politicians who are not good thinkers.}

#2 : Can you please explain why #2 is incorrect? HEre's my thinking: the purpose of GTA is to explain every feature in any arts. If I have explained every feature in arts, did I meet my purpose? Yes. Guaranteed.

Hence, purpose feature...I am not sure why the arrow is backwards in your solution.

#5 - I meant that buying a ticket online guarantees any seat in the concert. (Essentially, being a privileged customer, I can buy any seat - even the closest to the band. "Every" - meaning - I am a broker who buys tickets at a lower price and then make profits from the price different. HEnce "Every" seat -- similar to what shady websites do when bands like MEtallica play in Madison Sq Garden)

That said, do you think that the diagram would be concert bought a ticket online. (My thinking : If I got a seat or every seat in a concert, then did I buy tickets online? Yes. Guaranteed. HEnce, concert bought a ticket)

#6- Ok. I feel that "require" tells us that "people to vote" is a necessary condition. Please correct me if I am wrong....

It will be really helpful if you could guide me.


thanks again.
Voodoo Child

[Steve Stein]

Hi voodoochild,

Thanks for your response--again, there are some subtle but significant changes you make to your initial questions.

For example, on question #1 the first diagram you asked about was:

bad policies politicians who are not good thinkers

In your follow-up question, this became:

some policies politicians who are not good thinkers

This is a significant change; we would diagram "some" somewhat differently--I believe you said you had been studying our books? See the chapter on Formal Logic, and check on how we deal with "some" and "most."

...and on question #2, your first question regarded the purpose of the GTA--that is, whether or not something is the purpose of the GTA. Your follow-up question dealt with the question of whether or not you had achieved your goal.

For the sake of others reading these posts, let's keep these discussions to one, or at most two questions per--just quote the relevant portion and start a new thread. With that said, here's one more: take another look at question 5, and think about all of the people at that concert....if you don't specify that online is the only way to purchase, isn't it possible that some of the attendants are paying at the gate?

I know this stuff can be tricky, but try to avoid being too formulaic--I think once you've conceptualized a good number of these, you'll have a much easier time of it.

I'll also take this opportunity to mention a helpful tool for conditional reasoning practice: the PowerScore Logical Reasoning Bible Workbook has a whole chapter of logical reasoning drills, including drills specifically designed to develop and reinforce your conditional reasoning skills, as well as complete logical reasoning sections, deconstructed and discussed at length.

I hope this is helpful! Let me know--thanks!

~Steve

[voodoochild]

Steve,
Thanks for your response. I am sorry for posting multiple questions. Going forward, I will not ask more than two questions. I am confused about your explanations in #2 and #5.

I see your point about #1. Yes, I messed up between "a lot of" and "some." Thanks for correcting me.

#2 - The reason why I am confused is that in my first post, "A presidential campaign is any event in which citizens can elect their President." we agreed that the diagram would be "citizens can elect their president presidential election .....just to note...."any" is a sufficient condition marker)

However, for "The purpose of a GTA is to explain every feature in any of the arts.", you said that the diagram would be

purpose of GTA feature in arts. I am really confused. Shouldn't it be the case that 'the feature in any of the arts' is a sufficient condition because it follows "any" - a sufficient condition marker? I am really really confused.

Lastly, #5 - I meant to write a sentence something like : "booking a ticket online guarantees any seat in the concert". {My mental process: If I get ANY seat, does it mean that I bought a ticket online? Not necessarily because as Steve said, I could buy a ticket at the gate. If I buy a ticket online, does it mean that I can get any ticket? Answer - yes, at least that's what I can infer after reading the sentence.) Hence, the correct diagram would be:
buy a ticket online any seat in the concert .I am really not sure about this one.


Please let me know whether I am correct.

Thanks
Voodoo Child

[Steve Stein]

Hi voodoochild,

Before we move on, I want to make sure you're good with the idea of "some."

How would you diagram Some bad policies are made by weak-minded politicians, and the majority of weak-minded politicians are popular. ? What inferences can be drawn, if any?

Let me know your thoughts--thanks!

~Steve

Also, for your other questions, lets keep it to one per thread, and if you could, please provide some introduction to each new question so that others can benefit from our discussions. I read back through this one and I cannot imagine many people following this far down (other than you and me!) This thread, for example, perhaps could have ended after the first two posts--you asked me about three diagrams, and you got them all right!