Flawed Parallel Reasoning Questions - - Question 20

At Flordyce University any student who wants to participate in a certain archaeological dig is eligible to do so but ...

johnny August 7, 2017

Hello can you please expand the answer choice here?

Hello can you please expand the answer choice here?

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Mehran September 12, 2017

@johnny let's break down the stimulus first.

"At Flordyce University any student who wants to participate in a certain archaeological dig is eligible to do so but only if the student has taken at least one archaeology course and has shown an interest in the field."

Notice that this general principle is limited to any student at Flordyce University who wants to participate in a certain archaeological dig. It does not apply to all students.

Students at Flordyce University who wants to participate in a certain archaeological dig:

E ==> 1AC & SIF
not 1AC or not SIF ==> not E

"Many students who have shown an interest in archaeology never take even one archaeology course."

"Therefore, many students who want to participate in the dig will be ineligible to do so."

Notice the flaw here. We do not know whether these students "want to participate" so how can we say that "many students who want to participate in the dig will be ineligible to do so?"

Now let's take a look at answer choice (B).

"For a horse that is well schooled to be ideal for beginning riders that horse must also be surefooted and gentle."

Notice that this general principle is limited to horses that are well schooled. It does not apply to all horses.

Horses that are well schooled:

IBR ==> SF & G
not SF or not G ==> not IBR

"Many horses that are surefooted are not gentle."

"Therefore many well schooled horses are not ideal for beginning riders."

Notice that this is the exact same flaw. We have no idea if these horses are well schooled.

So (B) would be the correct answer here.

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

davealts November 10, 2019

The stimulus is assuming since many don't have one sufficient condition that many also do not have both. There may be many students who still are eligible for the dig and possess both the interest and the class even though there are a lot who lack the condition of having taken the class.
Just because there are a lot of horses that are surefooted but not gentle, doesn't mean there aren't still plenty of horses that are both.