Logical Reasoning

PT3 · S4 · Q20 Politician: Homelessness is a serious

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Politician: Homelessness is a serious social problem, but further government spending to provide low-income housing is not the cure for homelessness.

Conclusion

Further government spending to provide low-income housing is not the cure for homelessness.

Intermediate Conclusion (So)

People are not homeless due to lack of available housing.

Evidence

The real-estate section of any major newspaper shows there is no lack of housing units available to rent.

Evaluate

Whenever we do Main Conclusion or Role, we remind ourselves that most of these arguments are upside-down (conclusion comes earlier than evidence). About 60% have rebuttal/pivot conclusions and about 25% have first sentence conclusions.

This one had both!

The second half of the first sentence gives us an author Opinion, via a pivot + rebuttal line: "but X is not the cure for Y".

Once we hear that opening opinion, we listen to hear if the rest of the paragraph is designed to support that opinion. If so, it'll be our main conclusion.

Indeed, the rest of the passage defends that opening claim. There's an intermediate conclusion at the end to tease/trap us, but it is support for the opening idea.

Goal

They're asking us about the opening claim, which played no role in the argument. It's just a Background claim, one the author accepts, but it isn't a conclusion being supported nor is it support for the author's conclusion.

20.

That homelessness is a serious social problem figures in the argument in which one of the following ways?

  1. It suggests an alternative perspective

    Wrong Role

    The author accepts/believes that homelessness is a serious social problem. This isn't an alternate perspective.

    3% picked this

  2. It sets out a problem

    Wrong Role

    This is tempting since we can feel that this author is concerned with how to solve the problem of homelessness. But her argument is designed to reject one solution to the problem. "Building low income housing isn't the cure" Her argument isn't designed to provide a solution.

    22% picked this

  3. Correct

    It is compatible either with

    Why this is right

    This is just a way to describe a neutral claim. The author didn't oppose it. The author didn't support it. The author didn't use it for support. It's just a background idea. A starting point. Whether you believe that "building low income housing is the cure for homelessness" or that "building low income housing isn't the cure for homelessness" you can accept that "homelessness is a serious problem". So it's compatible with accepting or denying the conclusion.

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

    61% picked this

  4. It summarizes a position the

    Wrong Role

    The author volunteered this claim. She believes it. She's not trying to discredit it. The only idea she would want to discredit is someone saying, "The cure for homelessness is building low-income housing." This is trying to trap students into thinking, "If the author followed this claim with a but, that must mean the author disagreed with this claim." Pivots don't always signal disagreement.

    6% picked this

  5. It is required in order

    Wrong Role

    We would never call a neutral background claim something required. Since this opening claim played no supporting role in the argument, the author definitely doesn't need it to be true. Even if homelessness were just a moderate social problem, the author could still make her argument that "the cure isn't low-income housing, because the cause of the problem isn't low-income housing."

    8% picked this

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