Self-study
Hello everyone,
I know for many question stems, especially flaw Q's, the answer choices begins with "takes for granted, " "overlooks the possibility," presumes without justification," etc.
For these type of answer choices, can we apply the negation test and see if it destroys the argument?
The question type is not a strict "Necessary Assumption" question, but the answer choices are phrased as "Takes for granted"/assumptions, so can we treat them as similar to how we treat a necessary assumption answer choice -- and negate them?
Thanks!
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2 comments
Absolutely. If a flaw answer is phrased in assumption language, you can negate it to ask if it is an assumption in the argument. If it's not an assumption in the argument, it's not a flaw in the argument.
Be careful, though, sometimes an answer -is- an assumption in the argument, but that assumption isn't a flaw. In other words, it's fine to assume that, so even though it's an assumption, it's not the right answer to the question "what is wrong with this argument?"
@ITTutoring Thanks!!!