Logical Reasoning

PT143 · S1 · Q23 Editorial: The gates at most railroad

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Editorial: The gates at most railroad crossings, while they give clear warning of oncoming trains, are not large enough to prevent automobile drivers from going around them onto the tracks.

Conclusion (rebuttal)

This is a mistake. rephrase: The fact that people can drive their cars around the railroad crossing arms and get into an accident does not make these accidents partly the fault of the railroad company.

Evidence

A licensed driver is a capable adult who should know better. The gates give clear warning of oncoming trains.

Evaluate / Goal

The key wording we're trying to prove is that the railroad company is not partly at fault, so we just need a rule that says, .

We have two possible things we could say:

. or .

23.

The editorial's conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?

  1. The gates could be made

    Unrelated to Goal

    If the answer isn't providing a rule that allows us to derive the idea of "the railroad company is not at fault", then it won't serve our purposes of helping us to logically guarantee the conclusion. This answer is sort of suggesting that, "If a better solution still wouldn't totally eradicate the problem, then they're not at fault for the current solution", but we need all that spelled out.

    2% picked this

  2. Capable adults have a responsibility

    Too Weak

    Again, this answer doesn't provide a "not at fault" rule, so it won't serve our purposes of helping us to logically guarantee the conclusion. This answer is still compatible with the notion that the railroad company is partly at fault. We would need to hear that "100% of the responsibly lies with the capable adult" to prove that the railroad company is 0% responsible.

    26% picked this

  3. Correct

    When the warnings of companies

    Why this is right

    By saying that an adult is fully responsible, we're achieving our goal of proving that the railroad company is 0% responsible (they are not even partly at fault). Can we trigger this rule? warning of company ? adult fully resp. disregarded by capable adult for any accidents Do we know in the case of these railroad accidents that the driver is a capable adult who is disregarding the warning of a company? Yes, our two premises were that the crossings "give clear warning" and that a licensed driver is a "capable adult". Since this rule establishes that the adult is fully responsible for an accident when it disregards those crossing gates, it proves that "claiming the railroad company is partly at fault is a mistake".

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

    70% picked this

  4. Small children are not involved

    Unrelated to Goal

    If the answer isn't providing a rule that allows us to derive the idea of "the railroad company is not at fault", then it won't serve our purposes of helping us to logically guarantee the conclusion. This answer doesn't have any language about who is at fault / who is responsible.

    1% picked this

  5. Any company's responsibility to promote

    Too Weak / Unrelated to Goal

    This answer just says, "There is at least some limit on the railroad company's responsibility to promote public safety". But this answer doesn't have any wording regarding who is responsible / at fault, so we can't use it to derive our conclusion. And this answer is perfectly compatible with the notion that the railroad company is still partly at fault in these railroad crossing accidents.

    1% picked this

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