Necessary Assumption Questions with Conditional Language

srfisher4-1

Hi everyone! This is related to PT55S3Q24, but it is on necessary assumption questions with conditional language in general-- how do you do the negation test with conditional AC's? And what is a good approach for NA Q's with conditional language in the stimulus-- sometimes I feel like I can approaching them too similarly to a SA Q. Thanks!

r.anger1

to negate a conditional you simply show that you can have the sufficient without the necessary ever occurring. if you're given A --> B, then to negate you say A and ~B. in terms of conditional language in the stimulus, there are times when the stimulus will be so short/simple that the correct answer is both a NA AND a SA, so your approach may be correct sometimes (the same does not hold for SA questions). in those cases, look for dangling variables, aka variables that show up in the premises/conclusion that were not mentioned elsewhere in the stimulus (here it pays to know when terms are actually synonymous or when they're secretly completely different ideas). usually the correct answer will be a conditional using those variables. hopefully that helps!