Logical Reasoning

PT9 · S4 · Q4 Only if the electorate is moral

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Only if the electorate is moral and intelligent will a democracy function well.

Claim

In order to function well, democracy requires an electorate that is moral and intelligent.

Evaluate

The conditional indicator "only if" always indicates the right side (the necessary side) of a conditional.

So since the "only if" is connected to "electorate is moral and intelligent", we would put that idea on the right side of the arrow.

Democracy → Electorate is moral function well and intelligent

Goal

Since we were only given one claim, they can really only test us on manipulations of this claim. We could write a contrapositive, reminding ourselves that when when we say, X → Y and Z the contrapositive is ~Y or ~Z → ~X

So we might see, .

They could also just mention one or the other of those two trigger ideas: as well as

4.

Which one of the following can be logically inferred from the claim above?

  1. If the electorate is moral

    Reversal

    We were given Democracy → Electorate is moral function well and intelligent This answer says Electorate is moral → Democracy and intelligent function well That's an illegal reversal. "If" and "Only if" are basically opposites on LSAT. When we see "if" next to an idea, we put that on the left side. When we see "only if" next to an idea, we put that idea on the right side.

    8% picked this

  2. Either a democracy does not

    Too Strong

    This answer is assuring us that it will always be the case that democracy isn't functioning well, the electorate isn't moral, the electorate isn't intelligent, or some combination of the three. But why are we so fatalistic? Isn't it possible, given this statement, that we have a moral, intelligent electorate and a democracy that functions well?

    1% picked this

  3. Correct

    If the electorate is not

    Why this is right

    We were given Democracy → Electorate is moral function well and intelligent This answer just writes the contrapositive (you gotta love early tests) Electorate is not moral → Democracy or not intelligent function well A more conversational version of this is that we were told that a well-functioning democracy requires at least two things: a moral electorate and an intelligent electorate. So naturally if either of those required things are absent, then you can't have a well-functioning democracy.

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

    75% picked this

  4. If a democracy does not

    Negation

    We were given Democracy → Electorate is moral function well and intelligent This answer says Democracy not → Electorate is not moral function well or not intelligent That's an illegal reversal. "If" and "Only if" are basically opposites on LSAT. When we see "if" next to an idea, we put that on the left side. When we see "only if" next to an idea, we put that idea on the right side.

    14% picked this

  5. It cannot, at the same

    Reversal

    If we say, "it cannot at the same time be true that A is the case and that B is the case", we could write If A, then not B If B, then not A So we could write this answer as, "If it's true that the electorate is moral and intelligent, then it can't be the case that democracy functions well". In other words, Electorate is moral → Democracy and intelligent function well Just like (A), this is a reversal of what we were told: Democracy → Electorate is moral function well and intelligent Conversationally, it could be the case that the electorate is moral and intelligent and yet democracy doesn't function well, because there could be other requirements of a well-functioning democracy (such as free and fair elections whose outcome is accepted by the losing party).

    3% picked this

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