Logical Reasoning

PT122 · S4 · Q24 Most of the employees of

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Most of the employees of the Compujack Corporation are computer programmers.

Evidence

Most Compujack employees Most A's are B's. are computer programmers.

Most computer programmers Most B's are C's. receive excellent salaries.

Conclusion

There must be at least one Some A's are C's. Compujack employee that receives an excellent salary.

Evaluate

The cool thing with Parallel Flaw is that if there are obvious Quantifier / Conditional keywords, then we can potentially get the correct answer just by matching the structural signposts, regardless of whether we actually understand how the original argument was flawed.

This is one of those cases. The two premises are Most claims. The conclusion is "at least one", which is equivalent to Some.

The relationship between the two premises we need to replicate is that one Most claim begins where the other Most claim ends (the overlapping idea computer programmers is the end of one Most claim and the beginning of another).

If you're curious why this is flawed reasoning, we're only allowed to prove a Trait Overlap when the two most facts are about the same group.

A valid argument would sound like this: Most employees at Compujack Corporation are programmers. Most employees at Compujack Corporation have excellent salaries. Thus, at least one programmer has excellent salary.

The valid "Most + Most" form looks like this:

Most A's are B Most A's are C

infer: B and C have at least some overlap

The invalid form here is this:

Most A's are B Most B's are C

infer: A and C have at least some overlap

This is not good logic as you can see from this argument: Most death row inmates are adult men. Most adult men have full-time jobs. Thus, at least one death row inmate has a full-time job.

Goal

We want this form: Most A's are B Most B's are C infer: A and C have at least some overlap

The quickest things to scan for would be making sure we have two Most premises and one Some conclusion. And the two Most premises should "chain" together (i.e. one begins where the other ends).

24.

Which one of the following arguments exhibits a flawed pattern of reasoning most similar to the flawed pattern of reasoning exhibited by the argument above?

  1. Correct

    Most gardeners are people with

    Why this is right

    -Most of Molly's mates are gardener's Most A's are B -Most gardener's are people w/ patience Most B's are C -So, some Molly's mates are Some A's are C people w/ patience As is often the case, the chronological order of ingredients is scrambled. The "since X, Y" form tells us that Y is the conclusion. We should be proactively looking to arrange the two Most claims so that the first one ends where the second begins.

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

    59% picked this

  2. Most of Molly’s classmates are

    Weak Conclusion Match

    This one is very close (almost identical to A), but the conclusion doesn't have the same strength as the original argument. Original conclusion: at least one C-employee must receive great salary. This conclusion: at least one Molly's mates could be people w/ patience. This isn't a flawed argument, because, sure, it's possible that there's some Trait Overlap. Our only objection to the original argument is that there isn't mandatory overlap.

    19% picked this

  3. Most gardeners are people with

    Weak Conclusion Match

    Most of Molly's Most A's are B mates are gardener's Most gardener's are Most B's are C people w/ patience Looks good so far, but this should be the conclusion. So, some Molly's mates are Some A's are C people w/ patience Instead, we get a more complicated conclusion. So, some Molly's mates who Some A's who are are gardener's are people w/ patience B are C This is flawed in the same sense as the original, because the conclusion thinks there must be a Trait Overlap, when there does not have to be. But the structure of the conclusion is different, so (A) is the most similar pattern.

    12% picked this

  4. Most gardeners are people with

    Bad Premise Match

    We were looking for two most claims, one of which begins the way the other ends: Most A's are B's. Most B's are C. Here, the premises do not have that match. Most gardener's are people w/ great deal of patience. Most of Molly's mates who garden are women.

    5% picked this

  5. Most of Molly’s classmates are

    Bad Premise Match Valid Logic

    We were looking for two most claims, one of which begins the way the other ends: Most A's are B's. Most B's are C. Here, the premises do not have that match. They both start with the same group. Most of Molly's mates are women. Most of Molly's mates are gardener's w/ patience. In fact, this answer is valid logic. Since both Most claims are about the same group (Molly's classmates) there must be at least some overlap between the two ending ideas (gardener with patience / woman).

    5% picked this

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