Logical Reasoning

PT120 · S3 · Q25 A corporation created a new division

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A corporation created a new division.

Conclusion (Thus)

The new division must have been among the most effective, efficient, and creative divisions the corporation had ever created.

Evidence

The applicants selected to staff it were among the most effective, efficient, and creative workers that the corporation had ever hired.

Evaluate

Just because the people in this division were among the most effective, efficient, and creative workers doesn't mean this new division will be among the most effective, efficient, and creative divisions.

After all, maybe these people don't work well together, which drags down their effectiveness and efficiency.

Unfortunately, this kind of specific objection isn't super useful on Parallel Flaw, since we need a more abstract sense of the problem, so that we can match up the same abstract essence to the correct answer. One helpful thing is to know that Parallel Flaw loves to test us on the five most famous flaws: Necessary vs. Sufficient, Part vs. Whole, Causal, Unproven vs. Untrue, and Ad Hominem.

This argument is an example of Part vs. Whole: Since every ingredient in a group has quality X, the group itself must have quality X.

Goal

Let's look for another Part to Whole flaw. The premise should be saying that all the parts of something collective have a certain trait. And then the conclusion should be saying that the collective itself must have that trait.

25.

The flawed pattern of reasoning in which one of the following is most similar to that in the argument above?

  1. In order to obtain the

    Bad Conclusion Match

    This conclusion is saying "The six best players have been chosen". That is still a conclusion about individuals, not about a collective. If the argument were "We selected the six best players, therefore this will be the best team", then we'd have a match.

    11% picked this

  2. Several salespeople were given incentives

    Bad Evidence Match

    This conclusion is saying "The incentive program was effective". Could 'the incentive program' be considered a collective? Yeah, potentially. That means that our premise should sound like, "Each part of the incentive program was effective". But the evidence sounds nothing like that; it's just about one of the salespeople involved in the program.

    4% picked this

  3. A law firm decided to

    Bad Evidence Match

    This conclusion is saying "This will be one of the best family-law departments." That is definitely a collective. Is the evidence saying "each member of this family-law department is one of the best"? No. It's saying that the staff is a collective that is designed to match the collectives of other successful family law departments. This isn't really going from "because these parts are one of the best, this collective will be one of the best". It's saying, "We studied the best collectives. We tried to assemble a similar collective. So this should be one of the best collectives."

    26% picked this

  4. Correct

    To put together this year’s

    Why this is right

    This replicates the Part to Whole flaw. We establish that each player on the two teams was one of the best players, and then conclude that the teams are the best. Just like in the original argument, we have no idea whether these hotshot individual players will blend well as a collective, so it's hasty to think that the collectives will be "best" just because the individual parts are.

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

    59% picked this

  5. Various schools chose teams of

    Bad Evidence Match

    This conclusion is saying "It was the best team". So the evidence needs to say that "each part of the team is the best". But the evidence here says that "one team emerged with the highest average score".

    1% picked this

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