Logical Reasoning

PT114 · S4 · Q21 Political scientist: As a political system

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Political scientist: As a political system, democracy does not promote political freedom.

Conclusion

As a political system, democracy does not promote political freedom.

Evidence

Some democracies in history have resulted in some of the most oppressive societies (i.e. the least political freedom). Likewise, there have been enlightened despotisms and oligarchies that have provided a remarkable level of political freedom to their subjects.

Evaluate

This argument feels analogous to saying, .

When we say "X promotes Y", we're not claiming that "X guarantees Y" or that . It's a much weaker claim than that. It's just saying that X has some causal influence on the likelihood of Y.

The author can't cherry-pick democracies that were not free and non-democracies (despotisms and oligarchies) that were free, and conclude from that that democracies don't tend to help political freedom.

Goal

Look for something complaining that the author is trying to write off a causal relationship by cherry-picking a few counterexamples that don't fit the causal relationship.

21.

The reasoning in the political scientist's argument is flawed because it

  1. confuses the conditions necessary for

    Wrong Flaw: not Nec vs. Suff

    The famous Necessary vs. Sufficient flaw is about the author presenting a conditional relationship in her evidence and then applying that rule backwards or in opposite fashion to reach her conclusion. In this argument, the two premises (the 2nd and 3rd sentences) were not conditional statements, so we don't need to think any harder about this answer choice.

    13% picked this

  2. fails to consider that a

    Not an Objection

    When a Flaw answer choice is structured fails to consider / overlooks the possibility we can ask ourselves whether, if true, it would be an objection. An objection to this argument would help us argue that democracy does promote political freedom. This answer would be saying that "more political freedom can promote democracy", which does not help our cause.

    9% picked this

  3. appeals to historical examples that

    Too Strong: irrelevant

    The appeals to historical examples aren't irrelevant; they just aren't sufficient to prove the author's conclusion. Since the conclusion is about whether democracy promotes political freedom, any historical example in which we have democracy and do / don't have political freedom will be relevant.

    10% picked this

  4. Correct

    overlooks the possibility that democracy

    Why this is right

    This would be an objection. It's saying, "even though democracy isn't sufficient to produce political freedom (sometimes there is democracy but not political freedom) and even though democracy isn't necessary to produce political freedom (sometimes there is political freedom without there being democracy), it's still could be true that democracy promotes political freedom". This would definitely help us argue that "democracy does promote political freedom", because that idea is literally in the answer choice! This answer is saying, in very abstract terms, that the author's evidence (her counterexamples) are compatible with her conclusion being wrong.

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

    66% picked this

  5. bases its historical case on

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: personal point of view I have no idea how we would argue that the historical examples cited are based on this political scientist's personal point of view.

    1% picked this

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