The first statement of the passage tells us, translated:
NOT educated population --> economically and politically weak

Taking the contrapositive, we get:
NOT economically and politically weak --> educated population

The next statement tells us, translated:
educated population --> commit to public education

Connect the two statements up and we get:
NOT economically and politically weak --> educated population --> commit to public education

From this, we are able to validly draw the conclusion that:
NOT economically and politically weak --> commit to public education

But, of course, the invalid conclusion actually drawn is:
commit to public education --> NOT economically and politically weak

The general form of this invalid argument is as follows:
A --> B --> C
__________
C --> A

Answer choice (B) exhibits the same form.

The first statement tells us that, translated:
incapable of empathy --> not good candidates

Contraposed, it says:
good candidates --> capable of empathy

The second statement tells us that, translated:
capable of empathy --> manipulate

Connect the two statements up and we get:
good candidates --> capable of empathy --> manipulate

From this, we are able to validly draw the conclusion that:
good candidates --> manipulate

But, of course, the invalid conclusion actually drawn is:
manipulate --> good candidates

As you can see, this argument, like the one in the passage, also takes the invalid form of:
A --> B --> C
__________
C --> A


10 comments