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“Or”, meaning “both”

J.R. BagnerisJ.R. Bagneris Alum Member
in Logic Games 6 karma

Can someone please explain this to me: “‘or’ does not, in and of itself, exclude the possibility of ‘both.’ Thus, if a rule states, ‘F or G will be assigned to Y,’ it is entirely possible that both F and G can be assigned to Y.”

How???

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  • u______uu______u Alum Member
    233 karma

    The rule only makes it such that, in all possible situations, one of F or G must be in Y. What about the one that remains? It's free to do whatever it wants because you've satisified that rule. Let's say F is assigned to Y and there are no other rules that affect G. In that case, G effectively becomes a floater, thereby allowing G to also go into Y.

  • KevinLuminateLSATKevinLuminateLSAT Alum Member
    984 karma

    @"J.R. Bagneris" said:
    Can someone please explain this to me: “‘or’ does not, in and of itself, exclude the possibility of ‘both.’ Thus, if a rule states, ‘F or G will be assigned to Y,’ it is entirely possible that both F and G can be assigned to Y.”

    How???

    "I will go to the gym on Monday or Tuesday this week."

    "My mom or dad will be home to supervise the party."

    "Do you want milk or sugar in your coffee?"

    Do you interpret these as allowing only 1 of the "or" options, and excluding the possibility of both? If not, why not?

    Ultimately it may just be a language issue you'll have to train and get used to. I like to mentally add "at least 1 of" in connection with the use of "or", unless the rule explicitly precludes both. So I would read the rule you presented as "[At least one of] F or G will be assigned to Y." And I would read the other examples I used like this:'

    "I will go to the gym on [at least one of] Monday or Tuesday this week."

    "[At least one of] my mom or dad will be home to supervise the party."

    "Do you want [at least one of] milk or sugar in your coffee?"

  • RelentlessRelentless Core Member
    edited May 2023 379 karma

    The easier way to remember this is this: On the LSAT, by default any use of "or" includes the possibility of both variables being included, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

    Example: Tom will attend either Geography or History class this Tuesday.
    This means Tom will attend one but there is nothing that says he can't attend both. You've got to remember this.

    Refer to this lesson: https://7sage.com/lesson/why-is-or-so-confusing/

    However, some of it is also common sense driven.

    Example: Tom will attend either Geography or History class at 9am this Tuesday.

    This explicitly implies the possibility of only one of these happening.

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