June 2007 LSAT
Section 1
Question 18
Which one of the following could be an accurate account of all the kinds of material recycled at each recycling cente...
Replies
SamA on January 20, 2020
Hello @rosemarie,I think I can explain that. There isn't anything that implies a contrapositive. Rather, words like "any" and "every" are indicators that we are looking at sufficient and necessary reasoning. A contrapositive is simply another way to diagram a conditional statement.
For example:
Every reptile lays eggs.
r - - - - - - - - -> lays eggs
(sufficient) (necessary)
A contrapositive demonstrates what happens when the necessary condition fails. The sufficient condition also fails.
does not lay eggs - - - > is not a reptile.
This is the contrapositive of our previous diagram. They both carry the exact same logic. You may prefer to use one or the other, but they have the same meaning.
I'll give you another example.
Any student in the history class (H) also takes geometry (G).
H - - - - - - - -> G
If a student is not taking geometry, what can we conclude? That they are not in the history class.
not G - - - - - - - > not H
This is what the contrapositive represents. If you meant to say that "any" and "every" introduce sufficient conditions, then that would be correct.
DalilaPando on December 16, 2020
how do we know center 2 does not collect plastic??Emil-Kunkin on March 23, 2023
We know that 2 doesn't collect plastic since everything at 2 is also at 1, so for plastic to be at 2 it would also be at 1. However this cannot happen since there can only be one plastic.