Additional Premise and Counter-Premise Recognition Mini-Drill #2

[yugal_kishore]

Hi,
In the excercise to identify counter and additional premise, I have the follow question.

“There are dangers associated with phenylketonuria, and products containing phenylalanine must carry a warning label that states, ‘Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine.’

The second part of the sentence calls for a follow up action that is followed by 'must' . So, isn't that a conclusion and not premise ?
But the answer classifies the entire sentence as a premise.

REF:Additional Premise and Counter-Premise Recognition Mini-Drill

Thanks
Yugal

[Kristina Moen]

Hi Yugal,

A premise is a statement that serves as the basis for an argument. You can identify a premise by asking yourself "What reasons has the author given to persuade me?" You can also look at the Premise and Conclusion Indicators in your book, which will help you identify argument parts. Conclusion Indicators include "Thus, Hence, Therefore, etc." Here, the author is simply telling you that products must contain a warning label - look at the word "and." The author says that Phenylketonuria are dangerous AND products containing that chemical must contain a warning label. The author is not trying to convince you that products containing that chemical must contain a warning label - he is telling you that it is a fact. He uses that statement to support his conclusion that "we are doing as much as possible to protect against this condition." You can spot this conclusion by the Conclusion Indicator "Hence."

The word "must" is not a Conclusion Indicator. In fact, statements containing the word "must" are frequently used as premises because they introduce a rule! For example, take the argument that "All people who go to law school must take the LSAT. Yugal plans to attend law school next year. Hence, Yugal is studying for the LSAT." In that argument, the rule that "all people who go to law school must take the LSAT" is a premise that supports the conclusion that "Yugal is studying for the LSAT", just as the rule that "Products containing phenylaninine must carry a warning label" is a premise for the conclusion that "we are doing as much as possible to protect against this condition."

I hope this helps! You can bookmark the Premise, Conclusion, and Counter-Premise Indicators in your book and turn to them when you get stumped identifying the conclusion in a Logical Reasoning stimulus. They are excellent study tools and using them will help you internalize the concepts for test day!

[yugal_kishore]

Many thanks Kristina for explaining it nicely. It makes perfect sense to me and your additional explanation about the sentences having 'must' is really helpful.

Thanks
Yugal