The genuine creative genius is someone who is dissatisfied with merely habitual assent to widely held beliefs; thus t...

Naz on September 15, 2015

This is a strengthen with sufficient premise question. Remember that a sufficient premise is sufficient for a conclusion, if and only if the existence of the premise guarantees or brings about the existence of the conclusion. Therefore, we need to find the premise that 100% guarantees the conclusion. The way you want to attack these answer choices is two-pronged. Ask yourself, does it strengthen? If it doesn't, then cross it out and continue to the next answer choice. If it does strengthen, however, then ask yourself whether or not the premise guarantees the conclusion.

Conclusion: "thus these rare innovators tend to anger the majority."

Why? We are told that the genuine creative genius is one who is not satisfied with habitual assent to widely held beliefs and those who are not satisfied with this tend to seek out controversy. And, we are told that controversy seekers enjoy demonstrating the falsehood of popular viewpoints.

What's the issue? We have a huge leap from being a genuine creative genius to angering the majority. We need information that can help us bridge the gap.

First thing first, let's diagram:

"The genuine creative genius is someone who is dissatisfied with merely habitual assent to widely held belief,"

So: if you are a genuine creative, then you are dissatisfied with merely habitual assent to widely held beliefs.

P1: GCG ==> not SHAWB
SHAWB ==> not GCG

"Those who are dissatisfied with merely habitual assent to widely held beliefs tend to seek out controversy,"

So: if you are dissatisfied with merely habitual assent to widely held beliefs, then you tend to seek out controversy.

P2: not SHAWB ==> SOC
not SOC ==> SHAWB

"controversy seekers enjoy demonstrating the falsehood of popular viewpoints."

So: if you are a controversy seeker, then you enjoy demonstrating the falsehood of popular viewpoints.

P3: SOC ==> EDFPV
not EDFPV ==> not SOC

"thus these rare innovators (genuine creative genius's) tend to anger the majority."

C: GCG ==> TAM
not TAM ==> not GCG

Our correct answer will most likely connect "EDFPV" with "TAM."

That is exactly what answer choice (B) does: "People who enjoy demonstrating the falsehood of popular viewpoints anger the majority."

(B): EDFPV ==> TAM
not TAM ==> not EDFPV

We can also see that answer choice (B) guarantees the conclusion of the argument by connecting P1 to P2 to P3 to (B) like so: GCG ==> not SHAWB ==> SOC ==> EDFPV ==> TAM to conclude that GCG ==> TAM, which is the conclusion.

Thus, answer choice (B) is the correct answer.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

johnny on October 30, 2017

Thank you, can you help me understand why EDFPV----> ATM must be correct? Seems like the other way around could solve as well ATM---->EDFPV. Whenever I have 2 statements in which both have Sufficient condition in common I am confused as to what order they can/should show up in.