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 lathlee
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#42294
Untitled.jpg
Hi. this explanation from Nikki Siclnov made me thinking about the following (picture was captured from among Preptest 55 LG game 4, Van stops, Forum Powerscore discussion pg 2):

So otherwise basically and usually works as mistaken negation, or variation of mistaken negation but mistaken negation to be correct for this particular occasion as long as the condition is decorated by otherwise. right? utilizing the example from the picture,
"If I go to the bar, i will have fun. othersie i will be boared." :

Bar :arrow: Fun
Otherwise functions as : -bar :arrow: -

or (this is where variation of Mistaken negation comes) "If we can make a definite claim about the greatest Basketball player of all time, it will be Michael Jordan. Otherwise, I will go with Lebron James for my pick. "

Definitive Claim greatest basketball player :arrow: Michael Jordan.

Definitive Claim greatest basketball player :arrow: Lebron James. (i.e. -Michael Jordan)

My true grave concern regarding this matter which inspired me to ask in the forum in first place; did "Otherwise" played any significant role in any of Prior LR or LG question(s) (other than this LG) Ever?
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 Cats_and_LawApps
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#42319
You're right that "Otherwise," negates the Sufficient Condition (the condition to the left of the arrow) in the original conditional statement.

So, in the example about being able to make a definitive claim about the greatest bball player of all time, the original conditional statement would be:

"If we can make a definite claim about the greatest Basketball player of all time [THIS IS THE ORIGINAL SUFFICIENT CONDITION], it will be Michael Jordan [THIS IS THE NECESSARY CONDITION].
Otherwise [SUFFICIENT CONDITION NEGATED], I will go with Lebron James for my pick [THIS IS THE NECESSARY CONDITION, WE'RE TOLD, WHEN THE ORIGINAL SUFFICIENT CONDITION IS NEGATED]."

To diagram this, you would say,

"Can Make Definitive Claimbest bball player of all time :arrow: Michael Jordan"

"Otherwise," means you negate this sufficient condition. Negating this sufficient condition, you would say, "If we cannot make a definitive claim". But you cannot assume what the necessary condition will be just from the use of otherwise; you cannot assume that the necessary condition when the sufficient condition is negated will be the logical opposite of (in this case, "NOT Michael Jordan") the necessary condition associated with the original sufficient condition.

For instance, in the context of this situation with basketball players, the second sentence beginning in "Otherwise," could have gone any number of different ways. It could have said, "Otherwise, I will go with Steph Curry" (I know literally nothing about basketball so I'm just picking a name that I hear in headlines a lot :-D ); or it could have said, "Otherwise, I will not choose a player at all"; or it even could have said, "Otherwise, I will still pick Michael Jordan."

"Otherwise" only negates the sufficient condition (again, the condition in which we can make a definitive claim about the greatest bball player of all time) but doesn't necessarily mean the necessary condition (where we pick Michael Jordan) is negated (resulting in this person's NOT choosing Michael Jordan as the greatest bball player).

It would only be a Mistaken Negation if you assumed that saying "Otherwise," (negating the sufficient condition) also necessarily negates the necessary condition. In this case, that would be, if you assumed that Otherwise (in a situation where we CANNOT make a definitive claim about the best bball player of all time), we CANNOT pick Michael Jordan. If they are telling you that Otherwise (negated sufficient condition), they will select someone other than Michael Jordan (like LeBron James, or Steph Curry, or Kevin Durant -- again these names coming from someone who knows squat about basketball), that is not a mistaken negation, but situation in which the speaker (on the LSAT, the rules on a LG or stimulus for an LR question) tells you that a negation of a sufficient condition yields a different necessary condition.

"If and only if", on the other hand, DOES tell you that, if we CANNOT make a definitive claim about the greatest basketball player (negated sufficient condition), then that person is NOT Michael Jordan (must negate the necessary condition as well). E.g., "If and only if we can make a definitive claim about the greatest basketball player of all time, we will choose Michael Jordan." This sentence tells you that If we can make such a claim, that person is Michael Jordan; if not (i.e., if the sufficient condition does not hold), then the speaker would not choose Michael Jordan (although in this case we do not know WHO the speaker would choose, only that it's not Michael Jordan). In the scenario you presented, Lathlee, the "Otherwise," tells us whom the speaker will pick as the greatest basketballer of all time (in this case, LeBron James and NOT Michael Jordan) if we negate the sufficient condition. But you cannot assume, before reading the end of the sentence beginning with "Otherwise," that it is LeBron James or even that it is not Michael Jordan, since the speaker might still tell us he'd pick Michael Jordan whether or not the Sufficient Condition is met (i.e., whether or not a definitive claim can be make on this subject).

I can't necessarily name a particular LR question or LG rule that uses "Otherwise," but I came across quite a few in my prep. I feel like I saw some rules with consequences like this on sequencing games, but they were phrased differently. For example, "Either H is before J or H is before K, but not both."

That could be stated, assuming no two variables are at the same time as one another, as, "If H is not before (i.e., after) J, then H is before K. Otherwise (as in, Sufficient Condition negated--H is before J), H is not before (i.e., after) K." The way that I diagram rules like this, this rule just looks like,

J :longline: H :longline: K, OR K :longline: H :longline: J

However, it should also be noted that in this situation, you also need to be careful about the implications of "but not both," which allow us to create the conditional statement "If H is before J, then H is after K." So, not only MUST H be in front of one of them, H also CAN'T be in front of both of them.

Regarding LR, I feel like I've seen quite a few stimuli featuring this mechanism, often on Must Be True questions. The stimulus will contain one or more "if/then" conditional statements and also an "Otherwise," statement, in which a sufficient condition of one of the "if/then" statements is negated, and the stimulus then tells you the necessary condition of that negated sufficient condition, and then the question is "If the statements above are true, which of the following must be true on the basis of them?"

I wish I could point you to a specific example. Maybe the PowerScore folks have some in mind?
Last edited by Cats_and_LawApps on Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
 nicholaspavic
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#42326
Hi Cats and Paws,

Great explanation!

There are other examples of this on the LSAT, but my favorite has to be the one that's NOT in the stimulus but in ALL the answer choices. It's a demon question and you can find it in June 2011, LR Section 1, Question 21. Go take a look if you get a chance!
:-D
 lathlee
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#42442
Hi. but can i get answer for another question which i posted earlier? as in Otherwise played a significant role in LR or RC or another question of LG than the game mentioned? also can cat and love's answer be explained in more brief version?
 Jennifer Janowsky
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#42479
Lathlee,

A simple search shows that "Otherwise" is used frequently in LR and LG questions on the LSAT. It is important to understand the use of "Otherwise" in conditional reasoning, as this is likely not the last time you will see it.

To diagram Otherwise, you would write the condition it references and negate it:

I am going to snorkel on vacation. Otherwise, I will book my flight home.

In this case, "Otherwise" is referencing snorkeling, and therefore represents the alternative: if they do not snorkel.

SnoXrkel

Then, connect that to the necessary condition that results:

SnoXrkle ---> Book Flight

Hope that answers your question!
 lathlee
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#42481
sorry, it didn't really answer the question for me. maybe it is me. hahaha
 Adam Tyson
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#42489
Short answer here, lathlee - "otherwise" simply means "if not". For example:

If J is first, O is third; otherwise, O is 7th

means:

J1 :arrow: O3

and

J1 :arrow: O7

I hope that helps clear it up!
 lathlee
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#42490
Hi . Adam thx for the answer, but your answer doesn't go well with what Nikki said about Van game in Prep test 55 which i posted in here
 Adam Tyson
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#42491
I respectfully disagree, lathlee - what I said is a perfect match for what Nikki said. He described it as indicating that the sufficient condition does not occur - that is the same as "if not" (meaning if the sufficient condition does not occur). I think you will find that Nikki and I are on the same page in that regard.

Have you come across a use of "otherwise" where that did not work out or make sense to you? If so, please share, and we'll give it a closer look.
 lathlee
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#42501
Hi. Adam thank you so much for your reply. this is why I thought in first place, it seems ur explanation is disagreement with Nicki :

In a image posted (Nikki's explanation), example, If I go to a bar , then i will have fun, otherwise I will be bored, (Nikki used the following diagram:

Bar ---> Fun
- Bar ------> Bored (-Fun)

but the example you used

If J is first, O is third; otherwise, O is 7th

means:

J1 :arrow: O3

and

- J1 :arrow: O7

Unless you mean the negation of O3 is O7 which i wasn't entirely sure , so i was making sure in a cautious manner. cuz I never knew (never indicated) 03's negation form was o7 as in O7 (-O3) ? which after reading your kind explanation, now I think maybe I was being overly cautious.

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