#5 - Many fictional works have characters who are supposedly

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[landry6]

I identified the right answer for this question, but I am wondering if there was a more mechanical way to determine the assumption using the conditional relationship provided?

[Brook Miscoski]

Landry,

The main problem with the stimulus is that the conditional and its contrapositive do not lead to the conclusion that some of the characters aren't truly precogs. What we know is that sometimes a foreseen event doesn't occur, so sometimes there wasn't accuracy. But the first sentence of the stimulus only said that a precog must be able to accurately perceive future events. The conclusion of the stimulus is a little bit like claiming that Steve Curry isn't a free throw shooter because he sometimes misses. It's silly. So to make the stimulus work, we have to deal with that difference between ability and certainty. That's what (A) does. I don't know whether that's mechanical enough for you, but it's the way I see the analysis.

[demk26]

I selected A, but I wanted to confirm that my process was sound. I viewed this Question as a Supporter ("Gap Filler") Answer.

I diagrammed it as:

Premise: Perception Future Event Accurate Event Comes to Pass

Conclusion: Event Comes to Pass Perception Future Event Accurate Precognitive

Answer (A) would be diagrammed as: Precognitive Perception Future Event Accurate

This would fill in the conditional chain in the premise, hence it is a necessary assumption. Is that correct?

Thank you so much!

[j199393]

So is conditional reasoning not necessary to solve this problem? Thank you!

[KelseyWoods]

Hi demk26 & j199393!

Demk26: Good diagramming! You are correct that answer choice (A) is a Supporter Assumption that is filling in the gap in the argument. But the gap here is a little more nuanced than you have diagrammed. As Brook described above, the gap is more so the jump from the premise that "some" of their predictions are wrong to the conclusion that they are not truly precognitive. Answer choice (A) provides us with that link between the premise and the conclusion because it states that:

Truly precognitive ALL predictions accurate
Contrapositive: ALL predictions accurate Truly precognitive

Some predictions do not come to pass = ALL predictions accurate

Therefore, answer choice (A) fills in the gap between the premise and the conclusion.

J199393: You do not necessarily need to diagram the conditional reasoning present in this argument in order to find the gap in this argument. But understanding the conditional reasoning is important, especially in making sure that your answer choice links the terms in the right direction.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey