Monroe: Conclusion Our organization's project has been a failure. Support Our stated goal was to reduce as much as possible the number of homes in the community that lack electricity. Support Now, at the project's conclusion, approximately 2,000 homes are still without electricity.
Wilkerson: But before the project began, over 5,000 homes in the community had no electricity. Surely bringing electricity to around 3,000 homes counts as a success for the project.
Monroe claims that a recent project was a failure. Why? Because the project’s goal was to bring electricity to as many homes as possible in the community. But now that the project is over, 2,000 homes still don’t have electricity. To Monroe, this shows that the project didn’t meet its goal.
Wilkerson’s unstated conclusion is that the project was successful. How do we know? Because the project did bring electricity to 3,000 homes. And Wilkerson believes that providing electricity to 3,000 homes counts as a success, so we can infer the conclusion that the project was successful.
We want to find a disagreement between Monroe and Wilkerson. They disagree about whether or not the project was a failure.
Monroe and Wilkerson disagree over the truth of which one of the following?
Approximately 2,000 homes in the community are still without electricity.
Both speakers agree that this is true. Monroe claims this explicitly, and Wilkerson gets to it indirectly by saying that of 5,000 homes without electricity, 3,000 are now connected, which leaves 2,000 without electricity.
Before the organization's project began, over 5,000 homes in the community had no electricity.
Wilkerson agrees with this, and Monroe never states a position. Monroe doesn’t discuss how many homes lacked electricity before the project started, so there’s no reason to think that the speakers disagree.
The organization's project must be considered a failure if any home in the community has no electricity.
Wilkerson disagrees, but Monroe never agrees with this. Monroe thinks that 2,000 homes having no electricity counts as a failure, but doesn’t give a lower bound to this failure condition. Maybe if only one home had no electricity, Monroe would be content—we don’t know.
The stated goal of the project was to reduce as much as possible the number of homes in the community that lack electricity.
Monroe states this directly, and Wilkerson never disagrees. Wilkerson has different criteria for success than Monroe, but still doesn’t contradict Monroe about the project’s stated goal.
Leaving approximately 2,000 homes in the community without electricity at the conclusion of the project counts as a failure for the project.
Monroe agrees with this, and Wilkerson disagrees, making this their disagreement. From 2,000 homes lacking electricity, Monroe concludes that the project failed, implying this principle. However, Wilkerson thinks the project succeeded despite those 2,000 homes.
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