Logical Reasoning

PT152 · S1 · Q15 It has been said that understanding a person

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It has been said that understanding a person completely leads one to forgive that person entirely.

Conclusion

You'll never be able to completely forgive yourself.

Evidence

You'll never be able to completely understand yourself, and understanding a person leads to completely forgiving that person.

Evaluate

This got pretty deep. Once you return from staring into the void of your own self-reflection, questioning whether you completely understand yourself and whether you'll ever [gulp] completely forgive yourself, we'll talk about the argument.

We are getting absolute language in this argument, so we might want to think about this conditionally. If we see conditional logic appear on a Flaw question, then we're going to see a Necessary vs. Sufficient flaw 9 out of 10 times (a backwards or opposite inference from a conditional rule).

The conclusion is saying that we'll never forgive ourselves.

Why? What's the rule for forgiving yourself? What do you need that we don't have?

The first sentence is the only time we talk about forgiving ourselves. There is conditional/causal language like "X leads to Y".

understand forgive person → person completely completely

The author then reasons

PREMISE → CONCLUSION Can't understand Can't forgive yourself fully. yourself fully.

That's an illegal opposite move, which goes by the name of Necessary vs. Sufficient.

Goal

Look for an answer describing the Necessary vs. Sufficient error, or one pointing out that even though we can't understand ourselves fully (which is one way to get complete forgiveness), there might be some other method we can use that also leads one to forgive themselves entirely.

15.

A flaw in the reasoning in the argument above is that this argument

  1. Correct

    treats the failure to satisfy

    Why this is right

    This is just classic Necessary vs. Sufficient, in synonym form. condition that brings about an outcome = SUFFICIENT the only way to realize the outcome = NECESSARY Understanding oneself fully would bring about the particular outcome of completely forgiving oneself. But the author treats "understanding oneself fully" like it's the only way to completely forgive oneself, because she thinks "since we can't fully understand ourselves, we'll never fully forgive ourselves".

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

    75% picked this

  2. confuses something that is necessary

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: necessary for action to occur This answer choice is not saying "confuses a LEFT SIDE idea with a RIGHT SIDE idea". It's saying "confuses one type of right side idea with another type of right side idea". Applying to law school is necessary for the action of Getting admitted to law school to occur. Conditionally, Admitted to law school ? Applied to law school Meanwhile, we could say that Homework necessarily results from Getting admitted to law school. Conditionally, Admitted to law school ? Homework Either way you slice it, "Admitted to law school" is on the left. This isn't describing a conditional error where an author is treating a Necessary like a Sufficient or vice versa. In this argument was there anything "necessary for an action to occur"? Nope. So since we can't even match up the first concept with the argument, we can eliminate the answer.

    14% picked this

  3. takes for granted that something

    Wrong Flaw

    This answer is testing a distinction between Opinion and Fact. There is an opinion given in the first sentence: it has been said that X. Does the author take for granted that this idea is true? No, she goes on to say "if so ... ". That means that she isn't saying she endorses the truth of that first proposition; she's just saying "if that idea were true, then this implication would follow".

    6% picked this

  4. ignores the possibility that a

    Out of Scope: desirable

    Nothing in the argument is talking about whether anything is or isn't desirable.

    1% picked this

  5. uses the difficulty of attaining

    Out of Scope: attempting to attain

    Nothing in the argument discusses whether or not we should try to attain complete understanding. It is identified as an impossible goal, but the author may still think there are positives that come from trying to pursue this impossible goal. She is never advising us against attempting to attain it. She just descriptively tells us that it is an unattainable goal.

    3% picked this

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