Self-study
Therapist: Conclusion The ability to trust other people is essential to happiness, for Support without trust there can be no meaningful emotional connection to another human being, and Support without meaningful emotional connections to others we feel isolated.
Summary
The therapist concludes that trust is necessary for happiness. She supports this by saying that if you don’t have trust, you can’t have meaningful connections, and if you can’t have meaningful connections, you feel isolated. (Contrapositive: If you don’t feel isolated, then you do have meaningful connections, and if you have meaningful connections, then you have trust.)
Missing Connection
The therapist’s conclusion is about happiness, but her premises don’t mention happiness at all. We know that trust is necessary for meaningful connections and connections are necessary for not feeling isolated.
To make her argument valid, the therapist must assume that not feeling isolated is then necessary for happiness. In other words— she assumes that to be happy, one can’t feel isolated or if one does feel isolated, one can’t be happy.
16.
Which one of the following, ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ ██ ████████ █████████
a
No one who ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████
Contrapositive: Anyone who feels happy does not feel isolated. We know that if you don’t feel isolated, then you have meaningful connections, and if you have meaningful connections, then you have trust. So (A) guarantees the conclusion that trust is necessary for happiness.
b
Anyone who has █ ██████████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ██████
This is saying that if you have a meaningful emotional connection then you can be happy. But we need to establish what’s necessary for happiness, not what’s sufficient. (B) doesn’t prove that trust is necessary for happiness.
c
To avoid feeling █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █████ █████ ███████
This is saying that trust is necessary for not feeling isolated. We already know this from the premises and it tells us nothing about happiness. Instead of (C), we need an answer that establishes that trust is necessary for happiness.
d
At least some ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██████
Too weak. The fact that some people who don’t feel isolated are happy does not prove that not feeling isolated is necessary for happiness. Because of this, (D) fails to prove that trust is necessary for happiness.
e
Anyone who is ████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ ███ █ ██████████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██ █████ ███ █████ █████ ██████
This is saying that if you have trust, then you have at least one meaningful connection. But (E) tells us nothing about happiness. It fails to prove that trust is necessary for happiness.