Logical Reasoning

PT140 · S3 · Q9 Anyone believing that no individual

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Anyone believing that no individual can have an effect on society's future will as a result feel too helpless to act to change society for the better.

Conclusion (Thus)

Anyone who wants to improve society should reject the belief that its future will be determined entirely by vast historical forces that individuals are powerless to change.

rephrase: if you believe that the future will be controlled by things you're powerless to change, this will not improve society.

Evidence

If you believe that future is beyond your control, you will feel to helpless to act to change society for the better.

Evaluate

Consider this similar argument: Anyone who compliments Obama gets approval from Lisa's Dad. Thus, if you want Lisa to like you, you should not compliment Obama.

This is missing the idea

The argument we read had the same form. Anyone who believes "the future is out of our control" will feel too helpless to act. Thus, if you want to improve society, don't believe that "the future is out of our control".

So we'd be missing the idea,

Goal

Look for some answer stressing that .

9.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the argument?

  1. Anyone who believes that individuals

    Unrelated to Goal

    This sounds nothing like "feeling helpless is bad; it makes it harder to improve society". The conversation we were having in the argument was about people who would potentially believe individuals can't have an effect on the future, so we can tell from how this answer starts (people who believe we can effect the future) that it's dealing with an Out of Scope concept.

    10% picked this

  2. No one who rejects the

    Unrelated to Goal

    This sounds nothing like "feeling helpless is bad; it makes it harder to improve society". This answer choice is trying to sound appealing because it's linking together language used in the argument, but it's linking together synonyms that were already equivalent. "Believing society's future will be determined entirely by vast forces we are powerless to change" is the same thing as "believing that no individual can have an effect on society's future".

    11% picked this

  3. Anyone who feels too helpless

    Bad Outcome Match

    We're looking for something like "If you feel too helpless to act to change society, then you will make it harder for society to improve." The second half of this answer saying "then you should reject a belief". In our analogous example, we wanted an answer like, "If Lisa's Dad approves of you, then Lisa won't like you". This answer choice would be the equivalent of, "If Lisa's Dad approves of you, then you shouldn't compliment Obama." These ideas don't even make sense to process, because they are saying "if the 1st thing is true, you shouldn't do the 2nd thing", but we were told the 1st thing is a result of the 2nd thing. By the time the 1st thing appears on the scene (feeling hopeless / Dad approving), the 2nd thing has already occurred (believed future out of our control / complimented Obama).

    17% picked this

  4. Correct

    No one who wants to

    Why this is right

    This sounds like "feeling helpless is bad; it makes it harder to improve society". This is saying, "If you want to improve society, reject any beliefs that would make you feel too helpless to act to change." The premise said, "believing the future is beyond our control is a belief that makes you feel too helpless to act to change". So that lets us basically derive the conclusion, "If you want to improve society, reject the belief that future is beyond our control"

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

    60% picked this

  5. Each individual should act to

    Unrelated to Goal

    This sounds nothing like "feeling helpless is bad; it makes it harder to improve society". We're trying to justify that we should reject a belief that "we can't affect the future". Why? Because believing that would make us feel too helpless to act to change. Why is that bad? The correct answer needs to helps us with this part. But this answer isn't helping give us any reason why it would be bad for society if we feel too helpless to act to change.

    2% picked this

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