Many nursing homes have prohibitions against having pets, and these should be lifted. The presence of an animal compa...

shunhe on August 17, 2020

Hi @mikeheath,

Thanks for the question! So let’s walk through the argument real quickly. We’re told that lots of nursing homes ban pets, but shouldn’t. Why (note, by the way, that when we ask why and can answer it with other stuff in the premise, it’s likely that what we’re asking “why” about is a conclusion of some kind)? Because pets have health benefits and can make time at ah one more rewarding.

So now we’re asked for the conclusion drawn in the argument above. (A) tells us that this conclusion is that as the average life span increases, it will be important to more people that life in nursing homes be rewarding. Is that what the premises in the argument work to support? Is that what everything leads up to? If it were, the argument would look like this:?
P: Nursing homes ban pets?P: Nursing homes shouldn’t ban pets
P: Pets are good for various reasons
C: As the average life span increases, it will be important to more people that life in nursing homes be rewarding.

That doesn’t really make sense, right? And that’s how we know that (A) isn’t the main conclusion of this passage. Don’t think it is just because it’s the last sentence!

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.