Self-study
Professor: Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies and other profit-driven institutions provide nearly all of the funding for the chemistry department's research. █████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███████████ █████ ███████ █████████ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ █████████████ █████████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████████ ███████
Summary
Premise:
If we can’t secure more funding for basic science research → unlikely to make significant advances
Premise:
If we don’t make achievements in basic science → won’t gain prestige
Conclusion:
If we don’t have increased funding from places besides profit-driven institutions → unlikely to gain prestige
In English:
The author concludes that we need to get increased funding from places other than profit-driven institution in order to be likely to gain prestige. This is because in order to be likely to gain prestige, we need more funding for basic science research.
Notable Assumptions
Notice that “funding from places besides profit-driving institutions” is a new concept in the conclusion. Why does the author think we need this in order to get prestige? Because we need more funding for basic science research in order to get prestige. The author is assuming that in order to get more funding for basic science research, we have to turn to places besides profit-driven institutions. (This overlooks the possibility that we might be able to get all the funding we need from profit-driven institutions.)
Note that the there is arguably another assumption the author makes — that if we don’t make significant advances in basic science research, we won’t make “achievements in basic science research.”
16.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ███████
a
If the chemistry ██████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████
Not necessary, because (A) confuses sufficient and necessary conditions. The author believes that if we don’t get more funding, then we won’t make significant advances. That doesn’t imply the author thinks that if we DO get more funding, that we WILL make significant advances.
b
If the chemistry ████████████ ████████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ██ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ █████████████ ████████████ ████ ████████████ █████████
Not necessary, because although the author thinks that in order for prestige to increase, we need to get funding from institutions besides profit-driven ones, that doesn’t imply that once prestige increases, the funding will “subsequently increase.” There’s no evidence the author thinks increased prestige will lead to increased funding.
c
Members of the █████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ █████████████ █████████████
Not necessary, because “forgoing the funding” it currently gets from profit-driven institutions is a separate issue that the argument doesn’t relate to. The author believes we need to secure more funding from places that are not profit-driven institutions; this doesn’t imply we need to stop accepting money from profit-driven institutions or stop using it.
d
The chemistry department's ███████ ███ █████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ █████████████ ████████████ ████ ███ █████████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if funding for basic research IS likely to increase even if funding from sources other than profit-driven institutions does not increase — then we don’t have any reason to think that we need more funding from sources other than profit-driven institutions. The negation of (D) opens the possibility that we can be likely to secure more funding for basic science research, and therefore leave open the possibility that we can be likely to gain prestige, without doing what the author claims is necessary for that likelihood of prestige.
e
The profit-driven institutions ████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██████████ █████████
Not necessary, because whether the profit-driven institutions “benefit” is irrelevant. What matters is whether the chemistry department needs to turn to other sources besides profit-driven institutions in order to get more funding for basic science research. We have no reason to think that who benefits from that research influences what sources the department must look to for increased funding.