Logical Reasoning

PT8 · S4 · Q1 The cafeteria at Acme Company

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The cafeteria at Acme Company can offer only four main dishes at lunchtime, and the same four choices have been offered for years.

Conclusion (clearly)

If you wanna please customers, mushroom casserole should replace one of the regular dishes as a permanent part of the menu.

Evidence

The cafeteria at Acme Company can offer only four main dishes at lunchtime, and the same four choices have been offered for years.

Recently mushroom casserole was offered in place of one of the other main dishes for two days, during which more people chose mushroom casserole than any other main dish.

Evaluate

This conclusion offers a Plan / Goal type claim:

the GOAL: please customers the PLAN: swap out one of the four main dishes w/ mushroom casserole

To think skeptically about Plans/Goals, we think,

Let's suppose we swapped out one of the four main dishes with mushroom casserole. How could that fail to please customers? We know it was the most popular dish for the two days it was offered.

Well, maybe everyone tried it over those two days, since it was a new item and they were sick of the four dishes they've had to choose from for the last few years. But who said they actually liked it? Maybe they tried it hoping for a break from the monotony, but it really wasn't good. Two days isn't much of a sample size. Perhaps word would have gotten out that the casserole sucks, and its popularity would have dropped steeply in the days to come.

Maybe people liked it, but it's too heavy of a dish for them to want to eat it with any great frequency, so it wouldn't please them if it was one of the four main dishes in rotation at lunchtime.

Goal

Let's find an answer that allows us to argue that making the mushroom casserole one of the four daily offerings would NOT please people.

The argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it fails to consider

the proportion of Acme Company
No Impact (Irrelevant Comparison)
The proportion of employees who eat in the cafeteria regularly would not directly address whether people genuinely prefer mushroom casserole over other dishes permanently. The conclusion is only about the people who do eat in the cafeteria, so it doesn't matter whether that's a large or small % of employees.
2% picked this
whether any of the ingredients
No Impact (Irrelevant Comparison)
This doesn't give us a way to argue that people would be displeased if mushroom casserole became a permanent fixture of the menu. Whether we say, "yes there are some ingredients in common between the mushroom casserole and some of the other main dishes; for example, they both have salt and garlic" or whether we say "no, there are no ingredients in common" doesn't give us any insight into whether people actually liked the flavor of the mushroom casserole or would want it on a regular, ongoing basis.
2% picked this
Correct
a desire for variety as
Why this is right
If we say "people chose to eat the mushroom casserole because they desired something new (rather than the same four choices for years on end)", that offers an alternate explanation for why it was popular over its two day run. It wasn't because it was everybody's favorite dish, but merely because they felt like trying something different. This doesn't establish that people would be displeased if it became a permanent menu item, but it undermines the author's assumption that its two day reign as the most popular item signals that people loved it.
Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
94% picked this
what foods other than main
No Impact (Irrelevant Quality)
What foods other than the main dishes are offered doesn't impact the argument about replacing a main dish with mushroom casserole. There's no common sense link that would allow us to say something like, "If a salad bar is also offered, then people would / wouldn't want mushroom casserole as one of the four permanent dishes."
2% picked this
whether other meals besides lunch
No Impact (Out of Scope)
Whether or not other meals besides lunch are served in the cafeteria doesn't address whether mushroom casserole should replace a regular dish for lunchtime. The idea that the cafeteria might also serve breakfast or dinner doesn't give us any insight as to whether people would want mushroom casserole to be one of the four permanent lunch choices.
1% picked this

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