Logical Reasoning

PT102 · S4 · Q16 Essayist: Wisdom and intelligence

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Essayist: Wisdom and intelligence are desirable qualities.

Statements

Wisdom and intelligence are both desirable.

Being intelligent does not imply that one is wise, nor does being wise imply one is intelligent. (i.e. some people are intelligent but not wise, and some people are wise but not intelligent)

In my personal experience, people are either wise or intelligent but not both.

Evaluate

On Must Be False questions, there are two very prevalent patterns to the correct answer:

1. The correct answer contradicts a conditional we were given. (if we were given that A → B, then the correct answer will talk about someone who is A but isn't B)

2. The correct answer contradicts an available inference. (if we were given that A → B and told that Pam is A, then we can infer Pam is B, and so the correct answer would say Pam is not B)

However, here there were no conditionals and we can't really combine any of these facts to derive an inference. So our normal predictions don't seem to work.

Goal

So, if we're going to contradict what we're told, it'll sound something like - wisdom and intelligence are the same thing - all who are wise are intelligent - all who are intelligent are wise - some people the essayist has met about both wise and intelligent

16.

If the essayist's statements are true, then each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

  1. Most people are neither intelligent

    Compatible

    We don't have any quantifiers that would contradict this most claim. We know that some people exist who are intelligent but not wise, and some people exist who are wise but not intelligent. The author apparently mostly knows people who are one of those qualities, but his experience doesn't need to be representative of the world, so it's highly possible that most people lack both qualities.

    4% picked this

  2. Most people are both intelligent

    Compatible

    The essayist just said that in his experience, none of the people he's met have been both. But he wasn't speaking for all the people in the world, so it's still possible that most people are is both.

    39% picked this

  3. No one is both wise

    Compatible

    To contradict this answer, we would need to find in the paragraph the idea that "there is at least one person who is both". But we were never told of anyone who had both qualities.

    10% picked this

  4. Correct

    No one is either wise

    Why this is right

    To contradict this, we need an example of someone who is wise or someone who is intelligent. The last sentence says that the people the essayist has met have one or the other of these qualities. So we know that there are at least some wise people and some intelligent people. Thus, we've contradicted the idea that "nobody in the universe is wise, and nobody is intelligent". When we use a negative on an "or", we're saying not this "and" not that. What's the difference between saying "no one at my school is rich or famous" vs. "no one at my school is rich and famous" The 2nd one is saying you might find rich kids, or you might find famous kids, but you won't find any kids at my school that are both rich and famous. The 1st one is saying you won't find either. You won't find rich kids, and you won't find famous kids."

    Skill tested: Must be False · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    43% picked this

  5. Many people are intelligent and

    Compatible

    This seems very compatible, since we were told that "being intelligent does not imply that one is wise", which essentially is saying there are people who are intelligent but lack wisdom.

    4% picked this

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