Logical reasoning PrepTest 155 · Section 4 · Question 20

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Errors in Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
Democracy → Free Choice
not Well-reasoned opinions → not Free Choice
Well-reasoned opinions → Reading skills
Therefore: Literate Society → Democracy

Answer Anticipation:
While you can take contrapositive and combine these statements to form a chain, you should have noted that the conclusion has Democracy as a necessary condition, whereas the first statement has it as a sufficient condition. That means this has a conditional logic flaw, mixing up sufficient and necessary.

Answer Explanation:
Here's the generic answer we were looking for!

Key Takeaway:
If you are rock solid on conditional logic, you can sometimes spot an illegal reversal or negation quickly and save yourself some time on a question, especially if a conditional logic error comes up in an Errors of Reasoning question.

Incorrect. While this may be true, the argument does give a premises letting us know things that are both necessary and sufficient for well-reasoned opinions, no matter what means are involved.

Incorrect. The argument is about sufficient and necessary conditions, not means and reasons for doing things. That is closer to causal language.

Incorrect. The premises are about the same concepts as the conclusion (literacy, democracy), so this answer doesn't apply.

Incorrect. This answer is in the right world! However, the stimulus reverses the conditions, it doesn't mix up the chain, so this answer is wrong. This answer would be correct if the stimulus treated a sufficient condition as being sufficient for everything in the chain.