Only experienced salespeople will be able to meet the company's selling quota. Thus, I must not count as an experienc...

weepa7 on August 25, 2015

Explanation

I can't see the difference between a & b . Please diagram this.

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Naz on September 3, 2015

Let's diagram (A):

"Only on Fridays are employees allowed to dress casually."

P1: DC ==> F
not F ==> not DC

"Today is Friday"

P2: F

"but Hector is dressed formally."

P3: not DC

"So he must not be going to work."

C: not GW

So, the argument is mistaking it being Friday for the necessary condition, when it is actually the sufficient condition. We know that it could be Friday and someone doesn't have to dress casually at work. We merely know that if one is dressed casually work, then it is a Friday.

Let's diagram (B):

"Only music lovers take this class."

P1: TC ==> ML
not ML ==> not TC

"Hillary is not taking this class,"

P2: not TC

"she apparently does not love music."

C: not ML

This argument is mistaking not taking the class as the necessary condition, when it is actually the sufficient condition of the contrapositive. The difference between (A) and (B) is that (A) uses the two premises of "F" and "not DC," which are both necessary conditions to conclude that Hector isn't going to work, whereas (B) only uses the necessary condition from its contrapositive to conclude the sufficient condition of its contrapositive.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

heaven11953@gmail.com on September 20, 2020

What is wrong with C?

Victoria on October 2, 2020

Hi @heaven11953@gmail.com,

Thanks for your question.

Let's start by diagramming the stimulus.

"Only experienced salespeople will be able to meet the company's selling quota."

Able to meet quota --> Experienced salesperson
Not experienced salesperson --> Not able to meet quota

The flaw in the argument is that it mistakenly reverses the contrapositive i.e. it draws a conclusion about the sufficient condition based on the existence of the necessary condition.

Answer choice (C) tells us "only oceanographers enjoy the Atlantic in midwinter."

Enjoy Atlantic in midwinter --> Oceanographer
Not oceanographer --> Not enjoy Atlantic in midwinter

Answer choice (C) is incorrect because it does not use flawed reasoning. It uses the sufficient condition (Gerald is not an oceanographer) to conclude the necessary condition (Gerald must not enjoy the Atlantic in midwinter).

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.