Logical Reasoning

PT119 · S4 · Q8 Some students attending a small

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Some students attending a small university with a well-known choir live off campus.

Conclusion

None of the students who live off campus are music majors.

Evidence

All music majors members of the choir.

Evaluate

I guess we need to hear that .

We're trying to add on to our premise Music → in Choir major

in order to derive this conclusion Music ------------------------> doesn't live major off campus

So the missing link we need is this in Choir ---------> doesn't live off campus

Goal

Look for or its contrapositive, .

We know the correct answer needs to tell us something about "students who live off campus", since we're trying to prove a claim about them but so far haven't received any information about them.

8.

The professor's conclusion is properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?

  1. Correct

    None of the students who

    Why this is right

    This answer gives us this relationship. in Choir ---------> doesn't live off campus If we add that onto our premise, Music ? In major Choir Then we have derived the conclusion. Music ------------------------> doesn't live major off campus If you prefer it more conversationally, what do you get when you combine "none of the students who live off campus are in the choir" with the idea that "all music majors are in the choir"? You get, "none of the students who live off campus are music majors".

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

    72% picked this

  2. None of the students who

    Repeats a Premise

    Weird, I don't think I've ever seen this before, but this answer choice just repeats a premise. We were already told that "all music majors are members of the choir", so being told that "no music majors failed to join the choir" adds absolutely nothing because it means the same thing. We could throw this out without reading it, as it doesn't provide any information about students who live off campus.

    5% picked this

  3. Some of the students who

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: don't live off campus This argument is only about the students who live off campus, so information about students who don't live off campus is irrelevant. Furthermore, weak language like Some will almost never be correct on Strengthen, Weaken, Paradox, Sufficient Assumption, and Principle-Strengthen. We could throw this out without reading it, as it doesn't provide any information about students who live off campus.

    7% picked this

  4. All students who live on

    Negation of Conclusion

    We're trying to prove that if you live ? not a off campus music major And this answer is saying if you live ? you are a on campus music major That isn't functionally useful to us. If we're trying to prove that "Everyone who plays in the NFL is on steroids" It does nothing to say that "Everyone who doesn't play in the NFL is not on steroids." We could throw this out without reading it, as it doesn't provide any information about students who live off campus.

    10% picked this

  5. All students who are members

    No Impact

    This just reverses the flow of a conditional we already knew. We were told that "all music majors are in choir" Music Major ? Choir And this says "all choir members are music majors" Choir ? Music Major We have no use for reversing that conditional. We are trying to prove a claim about students who live off campus (that none of them are music majors), and we know literally nothing about them. So if this answer doesn't provide us with information about students who live off campus then it's not even worth reading.

    7% picked this

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