All of John's friends say they know someone who has smoked 40 cigarettes a day for the past 40 years and yet who is r...
mg123September 30, 2019
Why not C?
I am confused about why the answer is E and not C. The statement, "John does not know anyone like that and it is quite certain that he is not unique among his friends in this respect" seems more likely that all the friends know the same person that John does not know. I don't understand why we would assume that at least one person is lying. It feels more plausible that the friends are all thinking of the same person rather than lying. Why would some lie? What makes lying seem more plausible than the friends all having a mutual friend in common?
I tried to post this as a response to the other thread that asks the same question, but the website wouldn't let me.
Replies
Create a free account to read and
take part in forum discussions.
The stimulus tells us that all John's friends say that know someone who did X. John does not know anyone like that, and it is quite certain that he is not unique among his friends in this respect. What this statement is telling us is that it must be true that some of his friends also do not know anyone like that, i.e. he is not unique in not knowing anyone like that. This inference is incomparable with the fact that ALL john's friends know someone like that. Hence, if all the premises are true:
ALL friends SAY they know someone like that. John does not know anybody like that. John is not unique in that respect among his friends, i.e. some of his friends also do not know anybody like that.
We can conclude that at least SOME of his friends must be lying as (E) states.
(C) is incorrect because it contradicts one of the premises. If ALL friends know X then the premise that John is not unique in that respect, i.e. not knowing anyone, must be false, and the question requires us to make an inference assuming that all the premises are TRUE.
Let me know if this makes sense and if you have any further questions.
mg123September 30, 2019
Hi Irina,
That makes a lot more sense. I think the way it was phrased that John is not unique just threw me off a little. Thanks for the help :)
ValentinaAugust 25, 2020
Hi Irina,
If we must assume that all the premises are true, what makes John being "quite certain" more true than the fact that his friends "say they know someone like that"?
