PT135.S4.Q24

PrepTest 135 - Section 4 - Question 24

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Support Paleomycologists, scientists who study ancient forms of fungi, are invariably acquainted with the scholarly publications of all other paleomycologists. █████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ █████████ ████████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███ ██ █ ████████████████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ █ ████████████████

Method of Reasoning

The argument starts by describing one characteristic of members of a group (all paleomycologists are familiar with all the works of all other paleomycologists), describes a characteristic of one individual (Professor Mansour is familiar with the publications of Professor DeAngelis, a paleomycologist), and then concludes that the individual belongs to the group (Professor Mansour must be a paleomycologist).

Identify and Describe Flaw

The argument commits two flaws. First, the argument fails to trigger the necessary condition of a conditional relationship. The argument describes the conditional relationship that all paleomycologists know all the scholarly publications of all other paleomycologists, then says that Professor Mansour knows Professor DeAngelis’ works and, as a result, concludes that Professor Mansour is a paleomycologist. However, it’s not clear that knowing Professor DeAngelis’ works is the same as knowing all other paleomycologists’ scholarly publications.

Second, the argument commits a cookie-cutter “confusing necessary and sufficient conditions” flaw. Even if Professor Mansour being familiar with Professor DeAngelis’ scholarly publications is the same as knowing all other paleomycologist’s scholarly publications, that doesn’t necessarily imply that Professor Mansour is a paleomycologist. Confirming a necessary condition in a conditional relationship doesn’t necessarily confirm the sufficient condition.

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24.

The flawed pattern of reasoning ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████

a

When a flight ██ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ █████ ████████████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███████

b

Any time that ███ ██ ██████ █████████ █████ ██████ ██████ ██████ █ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ █████ ██████ ██████ ██████ █ █████ ████ █████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ █████

c

Any time the █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ████████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ █████████ ███████ █████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ █ ██████ ████ █████

d

All employees of ██████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █ ████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ █████

e

Whenever a competitor ██ ██████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██████

Confirm action

Are you sure?