Negation of ‘few’

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• 1 Like

  DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  June 2016 7468 karma

  Yes. The negation of "Some will show up” is not “some will not show up” (what I think you’re implying; I’m not 100% sure). The negation of "Some will show up” is "None will show up”
  . Remember “some” is a range of 1-100. Its binary cut is None.
  
  However, most instances on the LSAT will require the "Most are not” understanding of “few”, which is probably why JY equated the second translation to 'If most show up, then there's free booze.’
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  
• 1 Like

  quinnxzhang Member

  June 2016 edited June 2016 611 karma

  @nnking0407 said:
  I understand that few means some are, most are not.
  

  Right, so using this understanding, "Few A's are B's" is equivalent to "(Some A's are B's) and not(Most A's are B's)".
  
  The negation of "Few A's are B's" is "not(Few A's are B's)".
  
  Substituting in the equivalence above, this negation is equivalent to "not((Some A's are B's) and not(Most A's are B's))".
  
  Applying De Morgan's gives you "not(Some A's are B's) or (Most A's are B's)".
  
  As noted above, "not some" is equivalent to "none", so we get "(no A's are B's) or (most A's are B's)".
  
  Thus, if you're correct in your understanding of "few", we've shown that "not few" is equivalent to "none or most".
  
• DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  June 2016 7468 karma

  Nice application of deMorgan's @quinnxzhang . I hadn't thought of that.