Logical Reasoning

PT114 · S4 · Q20 Shy adolescents often devote themselves

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Shy adolescents often devote themselves totally to a hobby to help distract them from the loneliness brought on by their shyness.

Conclusion (So)

Developing an all-consuming hobby is not a successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness.

Evidence (But)

If they lose interest in that hobby, their loneliness may be exacerbated.

Evaluate

If we're looking for a linking answer, we'd combine together Premise language and Conclusion language to get something like,

How about if we were trying to think of Objections by arguing the Anti-Conclusion?

Given that ... losing interest in a hobby may exacerbate loneliness, How could we say that ... developing a passionate hobby is a successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness?

We might say stuff like - who says we'll lose interest? Maybe the vast majority of people who develop an all-consuming hobby stick with it forever?

- all you're saying is that if we lose interest, our loneliness may be exacerbated? If the chance is really low, then is that really enough to tank this strategy? Maybe everything in life carries with it some risk of exacerbating my loneliness.

Goal

Let's look for a linking answer like

or look for a defender answer like

20.

Which one of the following assumptions does the argument depend on?

  1. Eventually, shy adolescents are going

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: wider circle of friends This author never mentions anything resembling "quitting on a hobby because you want a wider circle of friends". It mentions "quitting on a hobby because lost interest". That's it.

    2% picked this

  2. Correct

    No successful strategy for overcoming

    Why this is right

    This sounds very strong, but it's conditional, so we should consider how it looks and ask ourselves whether the author made this move: Successful strategy for ? never intensifies overcoming adolesc lone that loneliness It seems like our author did make this move, in contrapositive form. He goes from saying, "Strategy X may exacerbate (intensify) that loneliness. Thus, it is not a successful strategy." The easiest way to deal with conditional answers is to diagram them (mentally or physically) and see if they match the author's thinking. The other move we could potentially deploy here is the Negation Test. If we negate this, does it weaken? some successful strategies for overcoming adolescent loneliness do sometimes intensify that loneliness Yes it does. It creates some doubt about the author's conclusion / final move.

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

    63% picked this

  3. Shy adolescents will lose interest

    Too Strong: if / will

    The author talked about possibly making friends as one develops a hobby (Sometimes it happens). This answer accuses the author of having committed to the extreme idea that "if you don't make friends, it's a 100% guarantee you'll lose interest!"

    9% picked this

  4. Some other strategy for overcoming

    Relative vs. Absolute

    This seems extremely tempting in a common sense way. If someone is saying, "X isn't a successful strategy for doing Y", we would think they must have some preferred way of doing Y. But that's not actually logically implied. You might tell me about your strategy for immortality (avoid carbs). I can correctly conclude, "avoiding all carbs is not a successful strategy for overcoming mortality". That doesn't mean that I'm assuming some other strategy for overcoming mortality is generally more successful than 'avoiding carbs'. Because it's possible that I just don't think there are any successful strategies for overcoming mortality. This argument is about whether or not X is a successful strategy (absolute language). This answer is about whether or not X is less successful than some other strategy (relative language).

    18% picked this

  5. Shy adolescents devote themselves to

    Too Strong: mainly because

    The author, if anything, said that shy teens develop hobbies mainly because they want to distract themselves from the loneliness caused by their shyness. She happens to mention that sometimes they make friends, but she doesn't amplify it to the level of this answer choice (the main reason they developed the hobby in the first place).

    8% picked this

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