Self-study
Columnist: Taking a strong position on an issue makes one likely to misinterpret or ignore additional evidence that conflicts with one's stand. ███ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ████████████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ██ ████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████████
Summary
The author concludes that if you haven’t already considered all important evidence conflicting with a position, then you should not take a strong position on an issue.
Why?
Because in order to understand an issue fully, it’s necessary to consider evidence that conflicts with one’s position.
Notable Assumptions
The contrapositive of the premise allows us to infer that if you haven’t considered evidence that conflicts with your position, then you don’t understand an issue fully.
But how, then, does that prove that if we haven’t considered all important evidence conflicting with a position, we shouldn’t take a strong position on the issue?
The author is assuming a link from “don’t understand issue fully” to “shouldn’t take strong position.” In other words, the author’s assuming that in order for it to be appropriate to take a strong position, it’s necessary to understand an issue fully. This is why the author concludes that in order for taking a strong position to be appropriate, we should consider evidence conflicting with that position.
18.
The columnist's reasoning most closely ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
It is reasonable ██ ████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████████
Leads to wrong conclusion. (A) allows us to conclude that it’s reasonable to take a strong position on something if we meet certain conditions. But we’re trying to prove that one should NOT take a strong position on issue. (”If X, then reasonable to take strong position” can NEVER prove that it’s unreasonable to take a strong position.)
b
To ensure that ███ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███ █████ █ ██████ █████████ ███ ██████ █████ ███████████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ ██████
(B) doesn’t help us conclude that one should not take a strong position on something. (B) is designed to help us conclude that we shouldn’t misinterpret or ignore evidence. But it doesn’t tell us what’s required in order for it to be appropriate to take a strong position.
c
Anyone who does ███ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ █████ ██████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ███
Helps build a bridge from the premise to the conclusion. We know from a premise that if you haven’t considered all conflicting evidence, then you don’t understand an issue fully. (C), then, implies that if you haven’t considered all conflicting evidence, then you should not take a strong position on it.
d
One should try ██ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ███████████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ ██████
(D) relates to an argument that concludes that one should try to under an issue fully. But the argument in the stimulus concludes that one should not take a strong position on something if you haven’t considered conflicting evidence. (D) doesn’t relate to when one should not take a strong position on an issue.
e
It is reasonable ██ ████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████████
Wrong trigger. (E) could lead to the conclusion that one shouldn’t take a strong position on an issue if there is NO important evidence conflicting with that position. But the premises didn’t establish that there is no important evidence conflicting with a position. The premises concern what happens if there IS conflicting evidence and you don’t consider that evidence.