If retail stores experience a decrease in revenues during this holiday season, then either attitudes toward extravaga...
jaleeljohnson39June 27, 2019
Question about diagramming P1
I notice that in an earlier comment thread that Naz diagrammed the first sentence as RSEDR-> AEGGC or PRBLPA.
Would it be incorrect to diagram it this way:
not AEGGC-> PRBLPA; not PRBLPA-> AEGGC
(because of the either/or i diagrammed it this way)
I ask this because when I diagram it this way, I was able to connect the last sentence of the passage. In doing that, my diagram looked like this:
not AEGGC-> PRBLPA-> not SKPRP
When I get the contrapostive of my diagram, since the question stem asks what must be true if salaries kept on pace with rising prices, I come up with answer A. Yet I do understand that C would have to be true as well.
Just wondering if/why diagramming it as an either/or would be incorrect and of it is correct what am I missing. If it is incorrect, how were you able to know to diagram it as RSEDR-> AEGGC or PRBLPA
Replies
Create a free account to read and
take part in forum discussions.
Great question. It would be incorrect to diagram it the way you did because it's not capturing what's going on in the first sentence.
RSEDR - >AEGGC or PRBPLA
The contrapositive of this is
not AEGGC and not PRBPLA - >not RSEDR
Although you were able to connect terms from your diagram to the last sentence of the passage, that does not mean that that method of diagramming is correct. It just means you have identical terms in your diagrams.
The only correct way to diagram the first sentence is how Naz did it (you could also use the contrapositive above since it's a logically equivalent statement).
Any other way of diagramming that first sentence won't give you what's going on in that first sentence.
Does that make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!
jaleeljohnson39June 27, 2019
Hypothetically speaking here, if the first sentence was written like this, "Retail stores experience a decrease in revenues during the holiday season when either attitudes towards extravagant gift-giving have changed or when prices have risen beyond the level most people can afford." (Essentially the same sentence with out the "if" in the beginning of the sentence)
Would this sentence be diagrammed as an either/or statement?
I'm asking because I'm wondering having that "if" in the beginning of the original sentence makes that first part of the sentence the sufficient condition, and then the statement "then either attitudes..." would be the necessary condition, which would be diagrammed the way Naz did it.
Sorry for the long post and thank you so much for the help!
shunheJanuary 9, 2020
Hi @jaleeljohnson39,
Thanks for the question! If there were "if," it would be diagrammed as a conditional with an either/or in it because of the "when." I'd diagram it as
AEGGC = attitudes towards extravagant gift-giving have changed PRBLMPA = prices have risen beyond the level most people can afford RSEDR = retail stores experience a decrease in revenues (during the holiday season)
