Logical Reasoning

PT130 · S4 · Q18 Despite the efforts of a small

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Despite the efforts of a small minority of graduate students at one university to unionize, the majority of graduate students there remain unaware of the attempt.

Conclusion (thus / should not)

The grad students should not unionize

Intermediate Conclusion (since / obviously)

The majority of them disapprove of the attempt to unionize

Evidence (Premises)

Of the small minority of students who have even heard of the attempt to unionize, most of them are pessimistic that a union would succeed or even try to effectively represent them.

Evaluation

The numbers in this argument don't add up. Let's say there are 100 grad students. The first sentence says that only a small minority of them (let's say 15 of them) have tried to unionize, while most of the 100 are unaware of the attempt (at least 51 of the 100 students have no idea that anyone is trying to unionize). Then the author zooms in on the 49 or fewer grad students who are aware of the attempt to unionize, and says that most of them disapprove. Since the author has established that most of 49 or fewer grad students disapprove, she's established that at least 25 of the 100 students disapprove.

But her conclusion is saying that a majority (at least 51 of the 100 students) disapprove. So the flaw is either calling out her mathematical shadiness, or calling out her apparent assumption that

Goal

Look for an answer talking about the author's bad math or about the author's sampling assumption (that the unaware students would also tend to disapprove of the attempt to unionize).

18.

The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

  1. tries to establish a conclusion

    Trap

    Bad Premise Match Out of Scope: "long-standing practice" There is nothing in the evidence about something being a long-standing practice.

    1% picked this

  2. fails to exclude alternative explanations

    Bad Conclusion Match

    This isn't a causal conclusion. The author isn't saying, "Thus, X must be the cause for why the grad students disapprove". That's the sort of conclusion that choice (B) would address.

    1% picked this

  3. presumes that simply because a

    Too Strong: "simply because"

    When an answer says that the author "concludes X merely/simply on the grounds that Y ", that answer choice is saying that Y was the only premise. Is the author's only reason for rejecting the attempt to unionize that a majority of students are unaware of it? No, there's also the premise that "the people who are aware generally reject it".

    17% picked this

  4. ignores the possibility that although

    Bad Premise Match

    This is tempting, but the author's argument isn't saying "Because the union wouldn't effectively pursue the grad students' interests, the grad students shouldn't unionize." Rather, the argument says, "Because a majority of grad students disapprove of the attempt to unionize, the grad students shouldn't unionize." This answer is really a flaw in the thinking of the grad students who said, "I don't approve of the attempt to unionize, because I don't think the union will effectively represent our interests."

    11% picked this

  5. Correct

    blurs the distinction between active

    Why this is right

    This obliquely gets at the bad math we discussed. We know that a majority of the aware-students disapprove. We have no idea how the unaware-students feel, and they comprise a majority of grad students! The author seems to count the unaware students among the ranks of those who disapprove, so this answer is saying "whoa, there's a difference between they don't know about the attempt and they disapprove of the attempt."

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

    71% picked this

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