Logical Reasoning

PT125 · S4 · Q8 The university's purchasing department

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The university's purchasing department is highly efficient overall.

Conclusion

Each staff member on purchasing department is efficient.

Evidence

The purchasing department overall is efficient.

Evaluation

This is a Part vs. Whole flaw, which we can recognize when the evidence and conclusion are recycling the same trait: “efficient”. Because the whole department deserves that label, does that mean that each employee deserves that label? Definitely not. When I was in 4th grade, I was on a really good soccer team. But does that mean that I was really good at soccer? No, I was terrible. My other teammates were so good that they made up for my lack of abilities.

Goal

We need something that recreates the move of

8.

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

  1. The employees at this fast-food

    Bad Conclusion Match / Weak Premise Match

    The premise isn’t really a fact about a Whole. If they referred to the whole staff as a collective, it would work, but this premise is about all the employees (make sure you distinguish between something that is true of lots of individuals vs. something that is true of a collective). Either way, the conclusion has nothing to do with recycling the same trait and applying it to each part of the collective.

    1% picked this

  2. The outside audit of our

    Reversal: Part to Whole

    This goes from Part to Whole, whereas the original argument went from Whole to Part. This says that “If each member is deficient, then the entire department must be deficient.”

    2% picked this

  3. Correct

    This supercomputer is the most

    Why this is right

    “If the whole computer is the most sophisticated / expensive, then each part of the computer must be the most sophisticated / expensive”.

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

    91% picked this

  4. Literature critics have lavished praise

    Reversal

    Just like choice B, this goes from Part to Whole, but we want to go from Whole to Part. This says, “If each part of this book is critically praised, then the whole book must be critically praised.”

    3% picked this

  5. Passing a driving test is

    Valid

    This isn’t part vs. whole. This is just valid logic. If passing a test is required for employment, then any employee has passed the test.

    3% picked this

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