Linda says that, as a scientist, she knows that no scientist appreciates poetry. And, since most scientists are logic...
JonJayApril 24, 2022
Eliminating Answer Choices
Hi there,
I went out on a limb trying to get the correct answer by eliminating answers that didn't map to a feature I noticed that doesn't seem to be particularly logical.
In the stimulus, it states that "As a scientist...no scientist". In my head, I essentially read that as "My stated identity is this...people with this stated identity (which happens to be the sufficient condition) don't have the necessary condition".
I narrowed that down to 2 answer choices, (B) and (E). Then I applied what I learned in the quantifiers lesson to eliminate (E) and select (B).
My question is, is this a valid deduction tool? Or did I just get lucky that eliminating answers in the aforementioned way happened to work out this time?
If it's legit, it saved me a bunch of time on this question.
Thanks,
Jon
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I think this tool can be useful, but maybe more useful as a secondary check once you have looked for other structural elements. That is, part of the structure is the fact that Linda thinks "As X, i know this about everyone who is X," but this is only one element of the argument structure. This is one reason why the argument is flawed, but there is a second, which is that the author thinks that since most people who dislike something are logical, then some of those who like it are illogical. This is probably the bigger flaw, and one that the correct answer must mirror. While I like your strategy of finding a feature that looks wrong/distinctive to narrow down answers, I would try to prioritize the main flaw in an argument when possible.
