Please Help

Let's diagram this: "All governments worthy of respect allow their citizens to dissent from governmental policies." P1: GWR ==> ACDGP not ACDGP ==> not GWR "No government worthy of respect leaves minorities unprotected." P2: GWR ==> not LMUP LMUP ==> not GWR "Thus, any government that protects minorities permits criticism of its policies." C: not LMUP ==> ACDGP not ACDGP ==> LMUP So the argument takes the necessary condition of P2, "not LMUP," and uses it to infer the sufficient condition of P2, "GWR." From there it invokes P1 to conclude that because we have "GWR," we must then have "ACDGP." However, as you know, we cannot infer anything from a necessary condition. So, we cannot conclude "GWR" from "not LMUP." Answer choice (B) has this same flaw. "All jazz musicians are capable of improvising." P1: JM ==> CI not CI ==> not JM "No jazz musician is incapable of reading music." P2: JM ==> CRM not CRM ==> not JM "Therefore, all musicians who can read music can improvise. C: CRM ==> CI not CI ==> not CRM Just as in the stimulus, answer choice (B) takes the necessary condition of P2, "CRM," to infer the sufficient condition of P2, "JM." From there it invokes P1 to conclude that because "JM" is present, we must have "CI." So, again, we see the flaw of using the necessary condition to infer a sufficient condition. But, we know that we cannot infer anything from the presence of a necessary condition. Thus, answer choice (B) has the exact flawed reasoning as the stimulus. Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Hi Naz. Will you diagram out answer choice C please? This seems to follow similar flawed reasoning: don't infer anything from the necessary condition. The only difference I see is that answer choice C uses the necessary condition from P1 and not P2.

I'm with Rex. I also chose C

I am not understanding how to diagram answer choice A. I know it's not the correct answer, but I'm trying to work through the whole problem. Will you please diagram it?

@naz can we have a diagram for answer choice C please?

@naz @mehren yes C please?

Hi @sweingar, @Alex & others, thanks for your posts. "All governments worthy of respect allow their citizens to dissent from governmental policies." P1: GWR ==> ACDGP not ACDGP ==> not GWR "No government worthy of respect leaves minorities unprotected." P2: GWR ==> not LMUP LMUP ==> not GWR "Thus, any government that protects minorities permits criticism of its policies." C: not LMUP ==> ACDGP not ACDGP ==> LMUP So the argument takes the necessary condition of P2, "not LMUP," and uses it to infer the sufficient condition of P2, "GWR." From there, it invokes P1 to conclude that because we have "GWR," we must then have "ACDGP." However, as you know, we cannot infer anything from a necessary condition. So, we cannot conclude "GWR" from "not LMUP." Answer choice (C) can be diagrammed as follows: "Ecosystems with cool, dry climates are populated by large mammals." P1: CDC ==> PLM not PLM ==> not CDC "No ecosystems populated by large mammals have abundant and varied plant life." P2: PLM ==> not AVPL AVPL ==> not PLM "Thus, ecosystems that do not have cool, dry climates have abundant and varied plant life." C: not CDC ==> AVPL If you combine the contrapositive of P2 and the contrapositive of P1, you get: AVPL ==> not PLM ==> not CDC Which in shorthand is: AVPL ==> not CDC The conclusion is an incorrect reversal of this transitive point. Different flaw from the stimulus and correct answer, as explained earlier in this thread. Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Could you please provide an example of how you would diagram choice A?? I know it's not the right answer, but I blew through all my time for this question trying to figure that out. Thanks!

Why is it that the conclusion's sufficient condition is "not LMUP" when the sentence states that the government protects minorities instead of not protecting minorities? Thus, any government that protects minorities permits criticism of its policies." C: not LMUP ==> ACDGP not ACDGP ==> LMUP

Hi there, It's a bit confusing with the double negative, but the sufficient condition is saying that the government does not leave minorities unprotected; therefore, the government protects minorities. Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.