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A Weakening question about the term "manifest"

Rev_LefeRev_Lefe Member

Hi everyone,

Here is a question, about weakening a claim, from my error journal:
Claim: Organic factors contribute to mental illness.
(A) the claim fails to consider that mental illnesses are only manifestations of organic factors.
(B) the claim fails to consider that any change in organic factors manifests itself as a change in mental condition.

Would you mind sharing your analysis of whether each of the choices is correct or not?

My specific issues:
1. The meaning of "contribute to" seems quite ambiguous to me; I felt it means "a correlation and possibly a causation".
2. Suppose it is a causation claim. I am troubled due to "manifestation," which seems to suggest that mental illness is a sign/an aspect of organic factors. If so, then (A) would merely show a super-set and sub-set relationship and therefore would not be able to weaken the claim.
3. (B) seems wrong to me as well. I am struggled with how to read the term manifest/manifestation correctly!

Thank you very much for your time!

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