Question #1563

treating "only" statements as if, then, rather than "some"

Started by francescacolby · started 2024-06-06 02:13 · last activity 2024-06-11 13:20 · 2 replies

"only" as a if, then statement, rather than a "some" statment. hello, i got the correct answer, but when I watched the video to make sure I did it right, she outlined a different process. Where i differed was for premise #2, the "only" statement. I turned the "only" statement into a if, then statement, then into a sufficient and necessary statement. (MR ---> SPCA) (MR= morally reprehensible) (SPCA= small portion contemporary portion). From there, I found a conclusion using all three statements as a premise. (I didn't know it was a argument rather than a set of facts. I don't know how to tell the difference to be honest, so an explanation on that as well would be helpful.) my conclusion was: TP-some-SPCA. I found that it matched the structure of answer choice E because the only 4 options either had a language error (not using word "some" in statements, or sufficient on left side in common error.

Replies

  1. Emil-Kunkin · 2024-06-11 13:19

    I think you should focus on what the sentence is actually saying rather than trying to rigidly apply keywords to diagram. The word only often does introduce sufficient and necessary terms (e.g., only citizens can vote) but it does not always. Here it is used as a qualifier, it is telling us that it is actually quite rare for something to occur. Let's try to check your diagram with the sentence. You said that if morally reprehensible, then a small proportion of contemporary ads. The sentence reads that only a small proportion of ads are morally reprehensible. This is completely different. I encourage you to focus on meaning over specific words. A sufficient and necessary relationship is one in which one thing guarantees another thing. We don't really have that in the second sentence. When an only indicate that there is a guarantee then it does indicate and if then, but it can also be used as a qualifier or to make something seem smaller.

  2. Emil-Kunkin · 2024-06-11 13:20

    Of course, your process afterwards was spot on. This is about finding the structure, which you did indeed do.

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