Here we have another Strengthen with Sufficient Premise question. Remember, we are looking for the answer choice that 100% guarantees the conclusion.
Our conclusion is that "in bureaucracies, risky projects are never undertaken (aka "not RPU")."
Why? In a bureaucracy (aka "B"), all decisions are arrived at by a process that involves many people (aka "DAPMP"). There is no one person who has the authority to decide whether a project will proceed or not.
We can diagram this as follows:
B ==> DAPMP not DAPMP ==> not B
Thus:
B ==> not RPU RPU ==> not B
(D) is correct because it 100% guarantees the conclusion. It is important to realize that if a single individual has decision-making power means that decisions are NOT arrived by a process that involves many people.
So, in efforts of keeping our variables consistent, let's use "not DAPMP."
We diagram (C) as follows:
RPU ==> not DAPMP DAPMP ==> not RPU
Through the transitive property we can connect answer choice (D) to the contrapositive to the premise.
RPU ==> not DAPMP ==> not B.
Thus, answer choice (D) guarantees the conclusion.
Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions!
JLWAKEFIELDOctober 8, 2019
How can you connect answer choice (D) to the contrapositive of the premise if RPU is not a sufficient condition for B ==> DAPMP or
not DAPMP ==> not B?
Thanks!
filozinniFebruary 28, 2020
When you say, "We diagram (C) as follows," shouldn't that be (D)?
RaviMarch 19, 2020
@JLWAKEFIELD and @filozinni,
Let's take a fresh look at this question.
The first thing that we should note is that a new term is appearing in our conclusion ("risky projects"), so our assumption is going to have to have this in it because if it didn't, then the conclusion would not be supported.
Diagramming the stimulus will help us to figure out how "risky projects" fits into the argument.
Decisions arrived at-->lots of people (not lots of people-->no decision arrived at)
Conclusion: not risky projects
The assumption involves risky projects and the number of people involved.
If we connect lots of people to not risky projects, we would have the correct answer and a complete chain
lots of people-->not risky projects (risky project-->not lots of people)
decisions arrived at-->lots of people-->not risky projects
(D) says, "The only risky projects undertaken are those for which a single individual has decision-making power."
Diagramming (D), we have risky projects-->not lots of people
The contrapositive is lots of people-->risky projects
This connects our premise perfectly to the conclusion, allowing us to conclude that the decision to undertake a risky project isn't going to happen in a bureaucracy. Thus, (D) is the correct answer choice.
Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!
