Self-study
Political scientist: Support The economies of a number of European countries are currently in severe difficulty. ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██████████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ █████ ██████ █████ ████████████ ████████ ██████████
Summary
According to the political scientist, Germany should provide aid to some other countries. Why? Because the countries are experiencing severe economic difficulty, and Germany is their only neighboring country with the resources to fix the problem.
Notable Assumptions
The political scientist’s premises merely describe a situation, but are used to support a conclusion which claims that Germany should take a particular action. The missing piece, which is assumed by the political scientist, is that in such a situation, Germany should take such an action.
In other words, we’re looking for a rule establishing that if neighboring countries are in economic crisis and Germany alone has the resources to help, then Germany should help.
14.
Which one of the following ██████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████████ ██████████
a
Any nation that █████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ███████████ ███████████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ████
This isn’t triggered by the premises, because it requires us to already assume that Germany alone has an obligation to help these countries. It also leads to the wrong conclusion, that only Germany should help.
b
Any nation that █████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ████████████ ███████████ ███████████ █████████ ██████ ████████ ████ █████████
We know that only Germany is able to economically resuscitate these neighbors, so this rule is triggered. And it successfully leads us to the conclusion that Germany should provide aid! In other words, this matches the political scientist’s assumption and bridges the gap.
c
Any nation that ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ █ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████
This doesn’t trigger, because we don’t know that Germany can only afford to aid a few countries. It also leads to the wrong conclusion, that Germany should not provide aid to more than just a few countries. So, this doesn’t help us.
d
Only nations that █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████████ ███████████ ███████████ █████████ ██████ ████████ ████ █████████
This is so close, but gets the correct rule backwards. We’re looking for a condition sufficient for Germany to provide aid, but this creates a necessary condition instead. That means it still doesn’t bridge to the conclusion that Germany should provide aid.
e
Only nations that ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ █ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████
The argument never involves the idea that Germany can only afford to help a few other countries, so this is irrelevant on that basis alone. The argument also never brings up the idea that Germany should limit its aid to just a few countries.