Self-study
Chairperson: Conclusion The board of directors of our corporation should not allow the incentives being offered by two foreign governments to entice us to expand our operations into their countries without further consideration of the issue. ████████ █████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███████
Summary
According to the chairperson, the board of directors should not hastily expand operations into two foreign countries, despite incentives and an opportunity to increase profits. Why not? Because both of these countries are politically unstable.
Notable Assumptions
The chairperson asserts that the two countries are politically unstable, but doesn’t actually explain how that’s connected to the board’s decision of whether to expand operations. In other words, the chairperson is assuming that if a country is politically unstable, the corporation shouldn’t rush to expand into that country. The correct principle will validate that assumption.
3.
The chairperson's reasoning most closely ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
A corporation should █████ ██████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████████
This leads to the wrong conclusion. The chairperson never claims that the corporation should never expand into these countries, just that board should consider carefully.
b
Corporations should expand ██████████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████
This leads to the wrong conclusion. The chairperson doesn’t argue that the corporation should expand into these countries, but rather that it should not expand carelessly.
c
Political stability is ███ ████ █████████ █████████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ████ █ ████████
The chairperson’s argument doesn’t involve any assumptions about political stability being the most important consideration. This also doesn’t tell us what actual decision a corporation should make about expanding into an unstable country.
d
Corporations should always ██ ████████ █████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ██████████
The premises state that the two countries in question are politically unstable, and this successfully bridges from that starting point to the chairperson’s conclusion that the corporation should not rush into expanding into those countries.
e
Boards of directors ██████ ██████ █████████ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ███████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███████████
The chairperson never claims that the board should disregard the incentives altogether, just that they should be cautious when considering expanding.