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CrookNovember 6, 2019
Two most statements
Is the reason for combining the first two premises allowed because we have two most statements? When we combine most statements do we automatically combine them so their outcome relates by the some statement?
Thank you
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That's correct - when we have two most statements that share a middle term:
SS most -> HS SS most -> GS
which can also be diagrammed as:
HS <-most- SS -> most -> GS
we can infer that:
HS - some - GS GS - some - HS
I am not sure what you mean by "automatically combine," it is not necessary to always make this inference every time you see two "most" statements in the argument.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
CrookNovember 6, 2019
How do you know when not to combine two most statements like: SS m HS SS m GS? Is it simply based on what you are trying to conclude?
SkylarNovember 7, 2019
@Crook Maybe I can help.
Whenever you have two most statements with a common left side, you can make the inference "right side 1 - some - right side 2." This is comparable to how you can infer the contrapositive whenever you are given an S -> N statement. In both cases, the inference (some statement or contrapositive) may or may not be needed depending on what the question is asking, but there is no way to determine this outside of reading the question and deducing what it's looking to answer.
Does this help? Let us know if you have additional questions!
