Political theorist: The chief foundations of all governments are the legal system and the police force; and as there ...

njohnson140 January 14, 2021

I couldn't connect the question to the correct answer.

The part of the question where it states "fails to establish" really tripped me up here. I would've chosen the correct answer, but I applied the aforementioned phrase quite literally to the correct answer and determined that it didn't match and didn't make any sense. Please help me to correct this if possible.

Create a free account to read and take part in forum discussions.

Already have an account? log in

shunhe January 15, 2021

Hi @njohnson140,

Thanks for the question! Phrases like “fail to establish” are ones that come up over and over again, and so once you see them a bunch you won’t have these problems anymore. When it says that “the reasoning . . . fails to establish that . . . “ it just means that the reasoning does not establish something. In other words, there’s a flaw in the reasoning. And that just clues you in to the fact that this is an error in reasoning question. So look for something that the argument can’t show!

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