Only computer scientists understand the architecture of personal computers, and only those who understand the archite...

MichelleRod May 28, 2018

Hey @Alexx637

Thanks for your question.

Let's diagram the stimulus in order to identify the flaw.

The first statement is "Only computer scientists understand the architecture of personal computers,"
Remember that "only" introduces a necessary condition. With that in mind, we would map this statement as follows:

UA ==> CS
not CS ==> not UA

The second statement is "only those who understand the architecture of personal computers appreciate the advances in technology made in the last decade."

AA ==> UA
not UA ==> not AA

Before diagraming the argument's conclusion, let's take a minute to form some logical chains based on the premises. This will help us determine what can or cannot be logically concluded from the two statements above.

AA ==> UA ==> CS
not CS ==> not UA ==> not AA

The argument concludes "only those who appreciate these advances are computer scientists."

CS ==> AA

As you can see, this conclusion does not actually follow from the two statements before it. It reverses the relationship between CS and AA without negating.

The conclusion does not logically follow. Put another way, computer scientists do not necessarily appreciate the advances made.

Answer choice (B) reads "The argument ignores the fact that some scientists may not appreciate the advances in technology made in the last decade." This is just another way of saying that that computer scientists do not necessarily appreciate the advances made.

Hollie-MacCutcheon June 3, 2018

This question is particularly hard for me. When will the video be available? It's disappointing that for the last half of the Sufficient and Necessary questions, there aren't video explanations. This is the hardest section, yet lacks proper training

Christopher June 6, 2018

@hollie-MacCutcheon, I've forwarded this question on to add it to the priority video queue.