Self-paced
Support My father likes turnips, but not potatoes, which he says are tasteless. ██ ██ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ████████ █████ ████████
The Flaw: Failure to Properly Negate a Conditional
This argument attempts to negate an all claim, but provides a bad counterexample to do so.
To negate the claim “whoever likes potatoes also likes turnips,” the counterexample we want is someone who does like potatoes but does not like turnips.
But the stimulus gets it wrong – it provides an example of someone who does not like potatoes and does like turnips.
Here’s a template for the answer choices:
[Example] is A and not B.
________
So is it not true that all Bs are As.
19.
The flawed reasoning in the ████████ █████ ████ ███████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
This book is ███ █ ██████████ ███ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ██ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████
(A) should fail your shallow dip when its conclusion attempts to negate a “some” claim (some paperbacks are expensive), which is a quantifier mismatch with the stimulus’ negated “all” conclusion.
b
Although this recently █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ███ █ ██████ █████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████
Like the stimulus, (B) attempts to negate an “all” claim by providing a bad counterexample.
To negate the claim “all novels have 75+ pages,” the counterexample we want is something that is a novel but is not 75+ pages.
But, like the stimulus, (B) gets its counterexample wrong – it cites something that is not a novel and is 75+ pages.
c
All ornate buildings ████ ███████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████████
(C) should fail your shallow dip when it simply applies the “all” claim instead of negating it.
d
Erica enjoys studying ████████ ███ ███ ████ ████████████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ████ ████████████
(D) exhibits the valid way to negate a conditional claim with a counterexample.
To negate the claim “whoever enjoys physics enjoys math,” the counterexample we want is someone who does enjoy physics but does not enjoy math.
That’s exactly what (D) provides.
e
People who do █████ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ █████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ████████
(E) should fail your shallow dip when its conclusion doesn’t negate a conditional claim.