By referring to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as "purely programmatic" (line 49) in nature, the author mo...

devinkramer on November 6, 2019

Spotting the difference between strengthen w/ sufficient vs necessary

Is there a quick and fail safe way of distingushing when it is a strengthen with necessary premise vs strengthen with sufficient premise?

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Skylar on November 7, 2019

@devinkramer Thanks for your question.

I found that being aware of common question stems for each category was helpful in distinguishing between the two. Here is a list that you may benefit from familiarizing yourself with.

Strengthen with Necessary Premise:
- The argument depends on assuming which of the following?
- Which is an assumption the argument requires in order for the conclusion to be properly drawn?
- The argument assumes which of the following?

Strengthen with Sufficient Premise:
- The conclusion is properly drawn if the argument assumes which of the following?
- The conclusion follows logically if which is assumed?
- Which of the following, if true, enables the conclusion to be properly drawn?

Does this help? Let us know if you have additional questions!

devinkramer on November 7, 2019

That does help thank you!!

rinavaleriano on March 2, 2021

Can you explain how to navigate the difference between strengthen with sufficient premise and just a normal strengthen? It seems they have similar language in the question stems.

allbirdsarescooters on February 5 at 08:20PM

This is helpful, is there anywhere in the modules or study hours that covers identifying which one the question is?

Emil-Kunkin on February 6 at 01:47PM

I believe there is at least one office hour focusing on identifying question types, you can filter the office hours by topic and tag and I think there would be a tag for "question types"

In general I would remember the following:

Strengthen questions just ask what would strengthen

Necessary assumption questions ask what the author must assume

Sufficient assumptions ask what will make the argument right, or justify the argument