Logical Reasoning

PT121 · S4 · Q21 Sociologist: Traditional norms in our

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Sociologist: Traditional norms in our society prevent sincerity by requiring one to ignore unpleasant realities and tell small lies.

Conclusion (So)

For a community to succeed, its members must be willing to face unpleasant realities and speak out about them honestly.

Evidence

If we ignore unpleasant realities and tell small lies, it prevents sincerity.

A community whose members do not trust one another cannot succeed.

Evaluate

The conclusion is saying .

Did the evidence provide a way to prove "will not succeed"?

Yes. It said .

So to prove that a community won't succeed, we want to establish that they don't trust each other.

What we know so far is that So we need to know that .

Formally, it looks like this:

Conclusion

won't face comm harsh truths --------------------------------> won't + be honest succeed

E vidence Evidence

won't face not don't comm harsh truths --> sincere trust --------> won't + be honest others succeed

Missing Link

not don't sincere ---> trust others

21.

The sociologist's conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?

  1. Correct

    Sincerity is required if community

    Why this is right

    This provides the missing link we derived: not don't trust sincere ? each other We know that when we're required to ignore unpleasant realities and tell small lies, it prevents sincerity. This answer tells us that with if we lack sincerity, community members won't trust each other. And we know that if members don't trust each other, then the community can't succeed. So, if a community is to succeed, its members will have to face unpleasant realities and speak honestly.

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

    68% picked this

  2. The more sincere and open

    Unrelated to Goal

    We need to establish that community members don't trust each other, because that's how we prove that a community wouldn't succeed. This answer doesn't help us establish anything about community trust, so it won't help us prove the conclusion. We should also recognize that this answer is switching from Absolute language in the stimulus (no sincerity, not succeed) into Relative language (less sincerity, less chance of success). That is almost always the mark of an incorrect answer.

    7% picked this

  3. A community sometimes can succeed

    Weakens

    This more or less contradicts the conclusion, so this would not allow us to prove the conclusion.

    1% picked this

  4. Unless a community’s members are

    Unrelated to Goal / Already Known

    We need to establish that community members don't trust each other, because that's how we prove that a community wouldn't succeed. This answer doesn't help us establish anything about community trust, so it won't help us prove the conclusion. This answer is telling us a connection we already knew from the first sentence. When community members are required to ignore unpleasant realities and tell small lies, it prevents sincerity. We know then that "Unless members are allowed to face unpleasant realities or not tell small lies, they cannot be sincere". This answer is saying something slightly different, but the salient point is that it's trying to connect ideas that are already connected in the argument.

    17% picked this

  5. A community’s failure is often

    Unrelated to Goal

    We need to establish that community members don't trust each other, because that's how we prove that a community wouldn't succeed. This answer doesn't help us establish anything about community trust, so it won't help us prove the conclusion. It's also pretty much unheard of for a correct answer on Sufficient Assumption to have wishy-washy strength like "X often is true". We have to prove with 100% certainty the conclusion, so we almost always pick answers with 100% certain language.

    8% picked this

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