Logical Reasoning

PT122 · S4 · Q22 Economist: Some people argue that

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Economist: Some people argue that when large countries split into several small countries, the world economy is harmed by increased barriers to free trade in the form of an increased number of national tariffs.

Conclusion (Therefore)

Dividing large countries into several small ones does not increase barriers to free trade.

Evidence

Small countries do not think of themselves as economically self-sufficient.

Evaluate

Since we just have one Premise leading up to the Conclusion, our missing link is pretty simple: if Premise, then Conclusion.

If small countries don't think of themselves as economically self-sufficient, then it doesn't increase barriers to free trade.

The evidence didn't provide us any rule that proves → not increase barriers to free trade so we know the correct answer will have to be a rule structured like that.

Goal

We should look for, ~Think of self as econ self-suff → ~Incr barrier to free trade

or the contrapositive, Incr barrier to free trade → Think of self as econ self-suff

22.

Which one of the following, if assumed, enables the economist's conclusion to be properly drawn?

  1. A country has the right

    Out of Scope

    Unrelated to Goal / Out of Scope (the right) If the answer doesn't give a rule that puts "doesn't increase barriers to free trade" on the right side of the arrow, then it's functionally useless to us. If we're guessing on Suff Assump, we don't want to pick wishy-washy ideas or answers that bring up new concepts, such as whether a country has the "right" to split.

    1% picked this

  2. Increasing the number of countries

    Unrelated to Goal

    Unrelated to Goal / Out of Scope (strengthened) If the answer doesn't give a rule that puts "doesn't increase barriers to free trade" on the right side of the arrow, then it's functionally useless to us. So if we don't see that language, there's no point in reading / processing what the answer is saying. If we're guessing on Suff Assump, we don't want to pick wishy-washy ideas or answers that bring up new concepts, such as whether "the world economy would be strengthened".

    5% picked this

  3. Correct

    All countries that impose national

    Why this is right

    By contrapositive, this answer is saying, if don't think of themselves as econ self-sufficient, then don't impose tariffs or other barriers to free trade Small countries, according to the evidence, do not think of themselves as economically self-sufficient. So, according to this rule, small countries do not impose tariffs or other barriers. Thus, dividing a large country into small countries won't add new barriers to free trade, since small countries don't impose any barriers to free trade.

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

    83% picked this

  4. There is strong evidence that

    Unrelated to Goal

    This does not provide a rule that allows us to prove that there won't be barriers to free trade. It tells us about the likely result of barriers to free trade.

    2% picked this

  5. Large countries tend to be

    Irrelevant Comparison

    This is a wishy-washy idea (tend to), so it's a dangerous guess on Sufficient Assumption. But more importantly, it doesn't have our New Concept in the Conclusion. We need to prove that something "won't increase barriers to free trade", but we don't have yet have a rule that tells us when there won't be increased barriers to free trade. The answer choice needs to give us such a rule or else we'll never be able to derive that language in the conclusion.

    9% picked this

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