The passage states which one of the following?

Ame15 on March 18, 2020

Argument V Set of Facts

Hello, I was wondering why it pertinent that we distinguish the paragraph from an argument/set of facts. How does that help us draw a conclusion to what the right answer is?

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BenMingov on March 18, 2020

Hi Ame15, thanks for bringing this up.

Categorizing a passage as either a set of facts or an argument is important for us to effectively attack different questions. The process of analyzing an argument will inherently involve us identifying the conclusion and subsequently figuring out how the premises and counter premises interact. The process of analyzing a set of facts is much simpler (theory wise), in that we only need to see how the facts interact. This can be through conditional inferences or deductions from fact combinations (e.g. no buses on route 9, there were vehicles on route 9: the deduction is that these vehicles were not buses).

I just want to give one pointer. Don't make this categorization the focus of your analysis. It will eventually become an intuitive process of realizing whether the passage you just read is an argument or a set of facts, and then you will react accordingly. This distinction is simply to aid our understanding, not a critical piece of information.

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