Self-study
A philosophical paradox is a particularly baffling sort of argument. ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █ █████████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ███████ █████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████ █ █████████████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████
Summary
Our intuitions regarding a philosophical paradox tell us that the conclusion of the paradox is false. But our intuitions also tell us that the conclusion of a philosophical paradox follows logically from premises that are true. Solving a philosophical paradox requires accepting any one of three things: that its conclusion is true, that at least one of its premises is not true, or that its conclusion does not really follow logically from its premises.
Notable Valid Inferences
Solving a philosophical paradox requires accepting something that goes against our intuitions. We must (1) accept that the conclusion is true when our intuitions tell us its false; (2) accept that one of the premises is not true when our intuitions tell us that the premises are true; or (3) accept that the conclusion doesn't follow from its premises when our intuitions tell us that the conclusion does follow from its premises.
20.
If the statements above are █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██ █████
a
Solving a philosophical ███████ ████████ █████████ █████████ ████ ███████████ █████ ██ ██ ██████████
Must be true. The stimulus tells us that solving a paradox requires accepting one of three things. Accepting any of these three things contradicts at least one of the intuitions described in the second sentence. We must (1) accept that the conclusion is true when our intuitions tell us its false; (2) accept that one of the premises is not true when our intuitions tell us that the premises are true; or (3) accept that the conclusion doesn't follow from its premises when our intuitions tell us that the conclusion does follow from its premises.
b
The conclusion of █ █████████████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███ █████████ ████████ ███ █████
Could be false. The stimulus tells us that one of the three things we could accept when solving a philosophical paradox is that its conclusion does not really follow logically from its premises.
c
Philosophical paradoxes with ███ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ █████████
Could be false. We don’t have any information in the stimulus that tells us which types of paradoxes are more baffling than others.
d
Any two people ███ ███████ ██ █████ █ █████████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████████
Could be false. We don’t have any information in the stimulus about people who attempt to solve these paradoxes. It is possible that two people could use identical approaches.
e
If it is ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █ ██████████ █████████████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████ ████████
Could be false. The stimulus gives us three options to accept in order to solve a philosophical paradox. So even if we can't accept that the conclusion of a paradox is true, it's possible to solve a paradox by accepting either of the other two options instead. We could accept that one of the premises isn't true or that the conclusion doesn't follow logically from the premises.