Voter: Our prime minister is evidently seeking a job at an international organization. Anyone seeking a job at an int...

Lucas on December 20, 2019

answer

difficult one

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BenMingov on December 20, 2019

Hi Lucas, thanks for bringing this question up.

This passage is a classic example of making a conditional reasoning error. In this specific instance, the passage makes a conditional statement, and then confuses the necessary and sufficient when making a conclusion. Let's see how:

Premise: Seeking job at international organization - > Spend lot of time travelling abroad

So far this is just a regular conditional statement, but now look at what they do with the conclusion.

Conclusion: Spend lot of time travelling abroad - > Seeking job at international organization

This is clearly an incorrect interpretation of necessary and sufficient. Spending lots of time travelling is a necessary prerequisite for seeking a job at an international organization. However, it is not sufficient to determine that someone is seeking a job at an international organization. It has this all mixed up.

Just because we have the following:

A - > B

Does not mean we can conclude

B - > A

The only things we know from A - > B are: A - > B and Not B - > Not A.

Answer choice D makes the exact same mistake as the passage:

Premise: Negotiating personal loan - > Go to bank

Conclusion: Go to bank - > Negotiating personal loan

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.