Strengthen with Necessary Premise Questions - - Question 11
In a large residential building, there is a rule that no pets are allowed. A group of pet lovers tried to change that...
mecaldw2August 4, 2020
Why not answer C
I understand why it is answer A but I am confused because it seems like answer C strengthens the argument because 90% are against the change and then negating that would say 90% are not against the change and then that would mean the majority wanted the change which would contradict the conclusion.
Thanks in advance.
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(C) "90% of the tenants are against changing the rule forbidding pets."
(C) is ultimately incorrect because it is too strong and specific to be necessary to the argument. Perhaps 80% of the tenants are against changing the rule instead of 90%. This would just as reasonably-if not more so- allow for the criteria of 10% of tenants signing the petition to be met. In other words, there is no reason that we need exactly 90% of the tenants to be against the rule. Perhaps more than 10% of the tenants signed the petition in support of changing the rule. This concept is reaffirmed by our negation ("90% of the tenants are NOT NECESSARILY against changing the rule forbidding pets"), which does not make the argument fall apart. Moreover, we should be careful not to assume we can conflate someone being against the rule change with that someone not signing the petition.
Does that make sense? Hope it helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
