Self-study
President of Central Supply Company: Profits are at an all-time low this fiscal year because of decreased demand for our products. ██ ████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The president concludes that the only options for Central Supply Company are to reduce planned expansion, or to eliminate less profitable existing operations. Why? Because if the company’s profits stay low, it may go bankrupt. Because of this, the company needs to prevent further decreases in its already low profits.
Identify and Describe Flaw
Based on the company’s need to prevent its profits from falling, the president concludes that there are only two options: reducing expansion or cutting existing operations. The flaw here is that we have no reason to think that other options might not also be possible—the president never addresses other possibilities. For example, why not increase advertising, or improve existing products?
18.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██████████
a
It presumes without ██████ █████████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ████ █ ████ ██████
The president doesn’t ever claim that the company’s survival has been a good thing. The argument is about preventing bankruptcy, not about weighing the company’s impact so far.
b
It does not ████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████████ ███████████
The president’s whole argument is about what alternatives may be possible instead of the company needing to declare bankruptcy.
c
It presumes without ██████ █████████████ ████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ████████
The president never claims that decreased demand is the only thing that can ever cause decreased profits. Saying that decreased demand caused decreased profits in this particular case is not the same thing.
d
It does not █████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ █████
Whether or not it’s possible that profits will decrease only slightly next year is irrelevant to the argument. We already know that if profits continue to fall, the company may go bankrupt. How much they fall doesn’t change that.
e
It does not ████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████
The president concludes that there are only two ways to stop the company’s profits from falling, but never tells us why those are the only options. This is a flaw because it means an important part of the conclusion—that these are the “only” options—lacks support.