Self-study
Hello! In the review section for PSAs, one of the patterns in the stimulus says the following:
"Kick ideas up into the domain, especially if the conclusion is conditional. Kick the sufficient conditions up into the premise set to transform the conclusion into an unconditional conclusion."
Can someone help me understand this? I am generally familiar with the idea of kicking ideas up into the domain, but I'm a bit confused about kicking sufficient conditions up into the premise set and what it means for a conclusion to be unconditional. My understanding of PSA questions is that the sufficient conditions are typically already in the premise set? Thanks so much in advance for any help!!
1
2 comments
Good question! For any stimulus, regardless of whether its PSA or some other question type, your conclusion could come in conditional form: If X, then Y. This can be particularly challenging with PSA questions. The idea with kicking it up is to "kick up the sufficient condition" (X) and pretend it's one of the premises (aka facts) Then that simplifies your conclusion to just the unconditional conclusion (Y).
For example, imagine the following argument on a PSA question:
Missing Rule: ???
Facts: A
Conclusion: If B, then C.
You could kick up B to the premise set and transform this conditional conclusion into an unconditional conclusion like this:
Missing Rule: ???
Facts: A and B
Conclusion: C.
This strategy makes it easier to spot the missing rule: "If A and B, then C." It might be harder to see that's the missing rule when we look at the original version with the conditional conclusion.
@RobertCarlson I see! Thanks so much for your thoughtful answer!!