Logical Reasoning

PT138 · S4 · Q6 After an oil spill, rehabilitation centers were set up

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After an oil spill, rehabilitation centers were set up to save sea otters by removing oil from them.

Conclusion

The effort to set up rehab centers in order to save sea otters from the oil spill wasn't worthwhile.

Evidence

900 of the otters the rehab center counted were already dead. 222 of the 357 that were alive were saved. But only 1/5 of the otters that died were ever found.

Evaluation

This question stem specifically asks us to undermine the evidence, as opposed to the typical wording: undermine the argument/reasoning.

What could be wrong with the evidence? It seems like we could say, "saving 222 of 357 is still worthwhile!". Maybe without saving those 222, this sea otter population would have no chance to recover, but saving this many of them at least lets these otters one day rebuild their numbers.

The last claim is also perplexing: they only found 1/5 of the otters that died. How do they know that the dead ones they've found are 1/5 of the dead ones? Where'd they get that total from?

Goal

Look for something making the evidence seem less trustworthy or less likely to lead us to conclude that these efforts weren't worthwhile.

6.

Which one of the following, as potential challenges, most seriously calls into question evidence offered in support of the conclusion above?

  1. Do sea otters of species

    No Impact

    Let's say that at the rehab center, we were counting Species X sea otters. This is asking, "Are there other types of sea otters, of Species Y and Z, that live somewhere far away from the oil spill?" Who cares? What would they have to do with analyzing the sea otters who were harmed / killed / rehabilitated from the oil spill?

    4% picked this

  2. Correct

    How is it possible to

    Why this is right

    This challenges the evidence in the final sentence. If you were rummaging through your dead Grandma's estate and found ten letters written during WWII, would you be able to say, "This is only 1/5 of the letters she wrote"? Of course not. Not unless you had prior knowledge of how many total letters she wrote during WWII. If you don't know the total, then you can't put a percentage to the number of letters you've found. Similarly, how would scientists know the total number of otters that died? Did they know the initial size of the local otter population? Did they test all the otters they could and then assume that the ones they didn't see were all dead?

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

    76% picked this

  3. Did the process of capturing

    Not Related To Evience

    This might help one argue that the rehab effort was not worthwhile (i.e. "Not only did we not save a ton of otters, but we also trapped and released a bunch of otters that weren't affected"), but it has nothing to do with the question task of challenging the evidence.

    15% picked this

  4. Were other species of wildlife

    Not Related To Evidence

    These rehab centers were "set up to save sea otters", so whether or not other marine life was affected by the oil spill is immaterial to assessing these rehab centers. If there were other species negatively affected, how would that challenge either of the evidentiary claims presented about sea otters?

    2% picked this

  5. What was the eventual cost,

    Not Related To Evidence

    In terms of assessing the Conclusion, of whether these efforts for "worthwhile", we could probably consider cost a relevant factor. How many otters did we save and what cost? However, the cost per otter wouldn't represent a challenge to either of the pieces of evidence offered.

    3% picked this

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