Existential quantifier question -- does several mean many?

Comments

• cstrobel Alum Member

  February 2018 228 karma

  @"surfy surf" said:
  I know that many means some. Can several be used interchangeably with many?

  Not necessarily, unless you know the overall population is small. Several votes in the context of a presidential election wouldn't generally be thought of as many. If you are a numbers person, think of what you'd suspect to need in order to have statistical significance.
• _oshun1_ Alum Member

  February 2018 edited February 2018 3652 karma

  @cstrobel I'm asking in terms of the LSAT, this is not a general philosophical question as to what several means. if you have an example of an LR/LG question which uses several and an explanation of how to lawgic it out I would appreciate it ty. In terms of the LSAT -- many means 1-100%, and if several means many, then yes "several" votes in context of a pres. election would mean "many."
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  Cant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor

  February 2018 27822 karma

  Yeah, I think so. These are both pretty ambiguous, but I'd say that you can usually interpret it to be logically equivalent to "some."
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  FixedDice Member

  February 2018 edited February 2018 1804 karma

  You know, I actually had this exact same question a while ago and looked it up. Merriam-Webster defines "several" as "more than two but fewer than many." But we all know some LSAT logic defies common sense.

  Seriously though, it depends on the context. I would think "several" is somewhere between "few" and "many," but if we are talking about a group of three within a population of five, it just might be interchangeable.
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  cstrobel Alum Member

  February 2018 228 karma

  @"surfy surf" said:
  @cstrobel I'm asking in terms of the LSAT, this is not a general philosophical question as to what several means. if you have an example of an LR/LG question which uses several and an explanation of how to lawgic it out I would appreciate it ty. In terms of the LSAT -- many means 1-100%, and if several means many, then yes "several" votes in context of a pres. election would mean "many."

  Sorry, was just trying to give an example. In the PTs I've take I've treated them as synonymous when I don't know the population size or if the population is pretty small. When the population could be large then I treat many as great than several. That seems to have worked consistently
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  _oshun1_ Alum Member

  February 2018 edited February 2018 3652 karma

  Thanks for clarifying ya'll. @cstrobel @"Cant Get Right" @FixedDice

  If I find specific examples in the future when I drill LR, I'll throw them in here
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  studyingandrestudying Core Member

  February 2018 5254 karma

  Yeah, I'd say each word is really special. My gut for several is more than one; beyond that I'd need the stimulus.