Self-study
Conclusion It is pointless to debate the truth of the law of noncontradiction, a fundamental logical principle according to which two statements that contradict each other cannot both be true. ███ █ ██████ ██ ██ ███████████ ████████████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ████████████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ ██ ████████████████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author states that there’s no point debating the truth of the law of noncontradiction, since a productive debate would require some agreement among the participants on basic principles. But since those common principles would be even less certain than the law of noncontradiction, it would be impossible to defend the law of noncontradiction using those principles.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is about the value of debating the law of noncontradiction: “It is pointless to debate the truth of the law of noncontradiction.” We know this is the conclusion because the rest of the statements are designed to show why the debate would be pointless.
17.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████
a
It is pointless ██ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████████████████
The author concludes that it’s pointless to debate the truth of the law of noncontradiction. Why is it pointless? Because such a debate wouldn’t be productive. (A) accurately describes the conclusion.
b
Statements that contradict ████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ █████
This is a description of the law of noncontradiction. But this isn't the conclusion. The conclusion is that it is pointless to debate the truth of the law of noncontradiction.
c
The participants in █ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████
This is part of a premise that the author uses to support the claim that a debate would be pointless.
d
The law of ████████████████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███████
The author never claims that the law of noncontradiction is something that participants in a productive debate must hold in common.
e
Any principles that █████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██ ████████████████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ███
The author never claims that "any" principle that could be used to defend the law of noncontradiction is less certain than the law of noncontradiction. But even if you think (E) sounds like something stated in the last sentence, it's still not the conclusion. The author uses the last sentence to support the claim that it's pointless to debate the truth of the law of noncontradiction.