Logical Reasoning

PT113 · S2 · Q16 Media consultant: Electronic media are

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Media consultant: Electronic media are bound to bring an end to the institution of the traditional school in our culture.

Conclusion (So)

It is inevitable that the traditional school will not survive in our culture.

Intermediate Conclusion

Electronic media are bound to end the traditional school in our culture.

Evidence (this is because)

The emergence of the traditional school was facilitated by the availability of relatively inexpensive printed books.

But in our current culture, the function of books in communicating information is gradually being taken over by electronic media.

Evaluate

This is a weird argument to engage with because the evidence seems very unconvincing for the dramatic conclusion it's supposed to support. We don't really have to worry about the gap between the Intermediate Conclusion in the first sentence and the Main Conclusion in the last sentence, because if the Intermediate Conclusion is correct (if something brings an end to the traditional school) then the Main Conclusion will be correct (traditional school will not survive).

So we need to worry about the move from to "electronic media will end the traditional school". Why does the author think that

The only relationship offered between 'books' and 'traditional school' is that the initial emergence of the traditional school, where students gather with a teacher in a classroom, was facilitated by the availability of books.

Couldn't a classroom with electronic media still involve a group of students gathered with a teacher in a classroom?

Goal

Let's look for an answer pointing out the author's weird move, .

Or look for an answer showing how electronic media is compatible with the traditional school continuing: .

16.

The reasoning in the consultant's argument is flawed because it

  1. presupposes as a premise what

    Not Circular

    This answer describes the famous Circular reasoning flaw, which probably shows up 30 times as an incorrect answer choice for every 1 time it's correct. A Circular argument is one in which there isn't really a unique premise idea. The premise is sort of just reiterating or assuming the conclusion. This argument has unique premises, though. The premises are "books helped the emergence of the traditional school" and "electronic media are taking over function of books". Neither one of those claims necessitates believing "electronic media will end the traditional school".

    5% picked this

  2. relies inappropriately on expert testimony

    Not Inappropriate Appeal

    This answer sounds like the famous Inappropriate Appeal flaw, one version of which is when an author appeals to someone's opinion but doesn't establish that they have relevant expertise on the matter. There is no "expert testimony" anywhere in the ballpark of this argument, so there's no way to match this answer up with anything we heard. Finally, it's not really a logical complaint that someone relied on expert testimony. Expert testimony is pretty solid evidence!

    0% picked this

  3. presupposes that just because something

    Bad Evidence Match

    This describes a semi-famous flaw (top 15, but not top 10), we could call Possible vs. Certain. The language of, "presupposes that just because X is true, Y is true" means that the author said X in the evidence and then concluded Y. The conclusion is a certain claim: it is inevitable that the traditional school will not survive. But there isn't a premise that says "it's possible that the traditional school won't survive". This answer is describing an argument that explicitly cites the possibility of something in the evidence, like this: Tony got a 160. People with 160s sometimes get into Yale. Thus, Tony will definitely get accepted by Yale.

    21% picked this

  4. Correct

    mistakes something that enables an

    Why this is right

    When Flaw answers say that the author confuses X with Y or mistakes X for Y, we want to consider whether X matches the evidence and Y matches the conclusion. Did the evidence talk about something that "enabled an institution to arise"? Yes. Books facilitated the emergence of the traditional school. Does the conclusion act like books are necessary to the traditional school? Yes. The author is acting like "once electronic media takes over the function of books (once we aren't using books anymore), the traditional school will end." Were we to write this as a conditional, it would look like this: Books → Traditional School Traditional School → Books That second line can be read as "Traditional school requires books".

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

    65% picked this

  5. confuses the value of an

    Bad Conclusion Match

    When Flaw answers say that the author confuses X with Y or mistakes X for Y, we want to consider whether one half of that matches the evidence and the other half matches the conclusion. The evidence is talking about the medium by which the traditional school operates (books vs. electronic media). But the conclusion isn't talking about the value of the traditional school. It's only talking about the survival / existence of the traditional school.

    9% picked this

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