Justify the Conclusion versus Strengthen questions

[agb95]

If a justify the conclusion stimulus contains causal reasoning, is it safe to treat it as a strengthen question with causal reasoning instead of using the justify formula, etc.? Thank you!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi agb95!

I would say it's not safe to treat them as the same, but rather important to distinguish between them--whether on causal or other types of questions. The rough rule is:

JTC: 100%
Strengthen: 1-100%

In other words, the right answer on a justify-the-conclusion question must make it so that the conclusion is overwhelmingly (100%) proven. By contrast, the right answer on a strengthen question supports the argument in any way possible (1-100%).

Suppose, for example, that you came across an answer choice that would give some assistance in getting the conclusion to follow from the supplied premises, but the answer left some gap such that the conclusion didn't necessarily follow from the premises. That could be a potentially correct answer for a strengthen question, but it could never be the right answer for a justify-the-conclusion question.

Lastly, they can often be confused because the right answer on a justify question does always strengthen the argument--it just does so in a particular way--overwhelmingly proving the conclusion. By contrast, the right answer on a strengthen question does not always justify the conclusion.