Doctor: Being overweight has long been linked with a variety of health problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. ███ ██████ ████████ ████████████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████████████ ████████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ████████ ███████████
The doctor cites research showing that slightly overweight people are healthier than considerably underweight people. From this, she concludes that being slightly overweight is enough to be healthy.
But the research only establishes a relative relationship. It tells us where "slightly overweight" ranks in relation to "considerably underweight" on the health scale. It doesn't tell us whether "slightly overweight" actually crosses the threshold into "healthy." (You can be healthier than someone who is very sick and still not be healthy yourself.)
than X)
than X)
The flaw is confusing a relative claim ("healthier than") for an absolute one ("healthy").
The argument's reasoning is flawed ███████ ███ ████████
ignores medical opinions ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ █████
The doctor doesn't ignore medical opinions that cut against her conclusion. She acknowledges in her very first sentence that being overweight has been linked with health problems. Also, it's not inherently flawed to reach conclusions that go against other people's opinions. So even if you interpret "ignore" as "go against," (which isn't what "ignore" means), (A) would still be wrong.
never adequately defines ████ ██ █████ ██ █████████
The doctor never defines "healthy," but she doesn't need to. We're allowed to make arguments without providing definitions of the words we use. We can expect people to understand the words based on standard dictionary definitions and context. So failing to define "healthy" isn't why this argument is unpersuasive.
does not take ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████
This points out that the doctor doesn't account for individual variation in appropriate weight. But the doctor doesn't assume that everyone has a similar appropriate weight. The premise is about a general relationship between the slightly overweight and the considerably underweight. What is "overweight" and "underweight" can vary from person to person, but the general relation between the two groups still holds.
holds that if █ ██████ █████ █ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████
Where is the "property that would suffice to make the person unhealthy"? And where does the doctor state that slightly overweight people don't have that property? These descriptions don't map onto anything in the argument.
For (D) to be correct, the argument would have had to say something like, "X guarantees you're unhealthy. But people who are slightly overweight don't have X. Therefore, being slightly overweight is enough to make you healthy." That would be concluding that because someone lacks a property that makes people unhealthy, they must be healthy. But the doctor's argument doesn't do that. Instead, she identifies a relative property (being healthier than considerably underweight people) and treats it as proof of an absolute property (being healthy).
mistakes a merely ████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████████
This accurately describes the flaw. The doctor's premise establishes a relative property: slightly overweight people are healthier than considerably underweight people. But her conclusion treats this as an absolute property: slightly overweight people are healthy. Just because X is above Y on the health scale doesn't mean X crosses the threshold into "healthy." Both groups could be unhealthy, with one simply being less unhealthy than the other.