Self-study
Support The greater the number of people who regularly use a product, the greater the number whose health is potentially at risk due to that product. ████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████████████ █████████ ██ ██ ██ ███████
Summary
It’s even more important to test household products like cleaning solutions and lawn chemicals for safety than it is to test prescription medicines for safety. Why? Because the more people who use a product, the more people’s health can be risked by that product. And more people use household products than use prescription medicines.
Notable Assumptions
The argument assumes that the importance of testing a product for safety is proportionally linked to how many people’s health may be risked by that product. That’s the missing link between the premises and the conclusion.
To justify the argument, we need to find a principle that tells us that if a product potentially risks more people’s health, then it’s more important to test that product for safety.
15.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
a
Whether or not ██ ██ █████████ ███ █ █████ ███████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ████████
This doesn’t lead to the conclusion we need, which is that it’s more important to test household products than to test prescription medications. Like (B), this rule can determine whether testing is important at all, but not whether it’s more or less important.
b
It is very █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████
Like (A), this still doesn’t help us get to the conclusion that testing one kind of product is more important than testing another. Maybe household products and prescription medications are both “very important” to test—and then we’re still stuck.
c
The more people █████ ██████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ █ ██████████ ████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████
In other words, if more people’s health might be at risk from household products than from prescription medication, then it’s more important to test household products for safety. This fills the gap in the argument and effectively justifies its reasoning.
d
If one type ██ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ███████
This isn’t applicable, it doesn’t trigger, because we’re not talking about a comparison between two medications. We’re trying to compare prescription medication with household products, a different category of products entirely.
e
It is generally ████ █████████ ███ █ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ███ █ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █████████
In other words, if it’s not the case that a nonmedical product might risk more people’s health, then it’s more important to test the medicine. This rule doesn’t trigger, because in our facts it is the case that household product potentially risk more people’s health.