#24 - If a society encourages freedom of thought and

[Dave Killoran]

Complete Question Explanation

Parallel FlawX-SN. The correct answer choice is (E)

The stimulus in this Parallel Reasoning-Except question contains a Mistaken Reversal (in classifying the question, please note that the X above refers to the "Except" portion of the question stem):

• EF = Encourage Freedom CF = Creativity Flourish
  
  EF CF
  
  CF EF

Thus, the four incorrect answers will contain a Mistaken Reversal, and the one correct answer will contain something other than a Mistaken Reversal.

In any ParallelX question containing conditional reasoning, one avenue of attack you have to expect from the test makers is the varying of the the order of the premises and conclusion in the answers. In the stimulus, the conclusion appears at the end, after two premise have been presented. This is paralleled in answer choice (A), (C), and (D); however, in answer choices (B) and (E) the conclusion is presented first and then the two premises are presented. Always keep track of where the conclusion is presented, and then start by diagramming the premises first.


Answer choice (A): Similar to the stimulus, this answer choice contains a Mistaken Reversal:

• ATS = Air Travel Safer A+ = Airfares Rise
  
  ATS A+
  
  A+ ATS

Answer choice (B): Similar to the stimulus, this answer choice contains a Mistaken Reversal:

• IE= Improved Efficiency C- = Crime Rate Down
  
  IE C-
  
  C- IE

Answer choice (C): Similar to the stimulus, this answer choice contains a Mistaken Reversal:

• PW = Preservation Wildfire BG = Big Game Hunting
  
  PW BG
  
  BG PW

Answer choice (D): Similar to the stimulus, this answer choice contains a Mistaken Reversal:

• BS = Bottle Safe P = Marked Poison
  
  BS P
  
  P BS

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. In this case, the answer choice contains a contrapositive, not a Mistaken Reversal:

• D = Democratic OME = Opinion Meaningful Effect
  
  D OME
  
  OME D

[ellenb]

Dear Powerscore,

I just want to make sure I have the right diagram for the right answer:

Democratic--> Opinion of Citizen has effect on the government
Opinion of the Citizen no effect on the government in Western countries
------------------------------------------------------------------
Western Countries are not Democratic

Dem--> OCEG
West Countries: not OCEG
-----------
West Countries: not Dem

is that correctly diagramed?

Thanks in advance!

Ellen

[Steve Stein]

Hi Ellen,

Thanks for your question. I think you've basically got it; this is how I would diagram answer choice (E):

Democratic citizen opinion has meaningful effect

Contrapositive:

Citizen opinion NOT have meaningful effect NOT Democratic

Therefore, Western "democracies" NOT Democratic.

Because this is a Flaw--EXCEPT question, the correct answer choice is the one that does not reflect the reasoning flaw found in the stimulus. Since choice E bases its conclusion on a valid contrapositive, that is the correct answer choice.

I hope that's helpful! Please let me know whether that clears this one up--thanks!

~Steve

[lbayliyeva@unm.edu]

I am struggling with diagraming sentences 2 and 3. The answer for this question does not show how I should diagram the statement. Here is what I am thinking

society encourages freedom of thought + expression > creativity will flourish in that society
In the US creativity flourished > the eighteenth century
freedom of thought was encouraged > eighteenth century

Is that correct? How should I connect the sentences?

The explanation online states that choice E is the correct answer because it contains mistaken reversal. Would you, please, walk me through why answer is correct?

[BethRibet]

Hi there,

Thanks for the question. The diagram should be pretty basic:

SEFTE (society encourages freedom of thought & expression) ---> CF (creativity will flourish)
Then the stimulus tells us that in the 18th century U.S., the necessary condition (CF) was met. So it concludes that the sufficient condition was met.

We know that just because the necessary condition is met, doesn't ensure that the sufficient condition will be as well. For instance, if you have oatmeal, it must be true that you have oats. But if you have oats, you might just feed a horse, make granola, or do anything else with the oats other than produce oatmeal. Oats, the necessary condition enables only the possibility of oatmeal, the sufficient condition. Similarly, CF makes SEFTE possible, but doesn't guarantee it.

Answer choices A through D all essentially replicate the same error, that is concluding that a sufficient condition is met because a necessary condition is met.

Answer choice E does not contain such a flaw, it gives us a condition, then tells us the necessary condition is not met (i.e. citizen's opinions do not have a meaningful effect), and therefore concludes that the sufficient condition (country is democratic) is not met. This is true. Sort of like saying, if you have no oats, you can't have oatmeal! It's basically giving us the original condition, then negating the necessary condition, which as when you diagram out the contrapositive, will tell you that the sufficient condition cannot be met. No oats means no oatmeal, no meaningful effect means no democracy.

Since the question is which answer choice does not contain a parallel flaw, E is the correct answer.

Hope this helps!
Beth

[Blueballoon5%]

13. If a society encourages...

(B) We can conclude...
(E) None of the so-called Western...


I have two questions:

1. Can someone help explain to me how to diagram answer B? I do not spot any necessary or sufficient indicators (such as "if" and "only"). Is there something about "conclude" and "because" that makes one a sufficient and one a necessary condition?

2. I have the same problem with answer E. How do we diagram this? Once again, I see "because" used in the sufficient condition. How is "democratic..." a necessary condition? And I do not understand how this is a contrapositive.

I hope you can help!

[Lucas Moreau]

Hello, Blueballoon,

For answer B, you have to keep in mind that you won't always see direct conditional language. Words like "always" and "never" will also bring about conditional reasoning, for if A always happens when B happens, then it can be said, if B happens, then A happens. See what I mean?

For answer choice B, the "always" statement is "Crime rates [always] go down when police departments increase their efficiency", which turns into the conditional phrase "If police departments increase their efficiency, then crime rates go down."

For answer choice E, "for a country to be democratic, the opinion" could be rephrased as "if a country is democratic, then the opinion" and the sentence would flow exactly the same way.

Hope that helps,
Lucas Moreau

[Blueballoon5%]

Hi Lucas! Thanks for answering my questions! I really appreciate your help in so many of my questions

I have a follow-up question.

1.) For answer choice B, how can we translate this statement, "We can conclude that the Hillside police department has improved its efficiency, because crime rates are down in Hillside..." into a conditional statement?

I tried to write both ways, and they both make sense:
"If the police improve efficiency, the crime rates are down."
"If the crime rates are down, the police improved efficiency"

2.) I also have a similar question for choice E. How could we translate this statement, "None of the so-called Western democracies is really democratic...and in none of these countries does each citizen’s opinion have such an effect."


Thanks!!

[Herzog.Laura]

Hi Blueballoon,

This part is a bit tricky!

1) The sentence "We can conclude that the Hillside police department has improved its efficiency, because crime rates are down in Hillside" isn't actually a conditional statement. Its a conclusion that the speaker is trying to draw by applying a conditional rule to a specific situation. Not to mention that they put the conclusion first.

If we start with the conditional statement:

When police departments increase their efficient crime rates go down.

Then we apply it to the specific situation in Hillside: that the crime rates are down, we can attempt to draw the conclusion that the police department increased efficiency.
BUT:

[Crime rates down in Hillside Hillside PD increased efficiency ] is a mistaken reversal.



2) In this answer choice, we start with the conditional statement that:

If a country is democratic the opinions of its citizens must have a meaningful effect.

The contrapositive being that:

if the citizens opinions don't have a meaningful effect it is not truly democratic.

We add the situation specific information to try and trigger our conditional, and draw a conclusion:

None of these countries have citizens whose opinions have a meaningful effect not democratic.

Here ^ we are able to draw a valid conclusion because the citizens' opinions not having a meaningful effect triggers the sufficient condition in the contrapositive, and is enough to tell us that those countries must not be democratic.

Hope that helps!

[LSATconqueror]

How would you diagram this question? Any help will be greatly appreciated.