#19 - Of all the houses in the city’s historic district, the

[PositiveThinker]

I was able to get this answer right simply because the structure was the same in answer choice E as the stimulus.


I just do not see the flaw in the stimulus. Had the question stem simply asked us to find the parallel reasoning, then i never would have assumed there were any flaws. Fortunately there was a flaw in the stimulus, and I'm here trying to figure it out so that it will be easier for me to find the flaw on future questions.



I diagrammed this out as

House in the historic district: HHD
Tyler family house: TFH
House in the city: HC


Premise 1: HHD-----> TFH most famous
Premise 2: Most famous HC-----> HHD


Conclusion : TFH is the cities most famous house.


Not i thought i could just link up


Most famous HC---->HHD----> TFH most famous

And you get the conclusion in the stimulus. Why isn't this a valid argument? I just don't see it. Thanks!

[AthenaDalton]

Hi PostitiveThinker,

The flaw here is assuming that what's true of the part must also be true of the whole.

Just because one house is the most famous in a particular district doesn't mean that it's the most famous house in the entire city. There could be one fabulously famous house in an otherwise nondescript district of the city that outshines the Tyler home.

I hope this makes sense. Good luck studying!

Athena Dalton

[oops27]

Hi PostitiveThinker,

The flaw here is assuming that what's true of the part must also be true of the whole.

Just because one house is the most famous in a particular district doesn't mean that it's the most famous house in the entire city. There could be one fabulously famous house in an otherwise nondescript district of the city that outshines the Tyler home.

Is this a typo? I thought that this was a whole to part fallacy--assuming from the fact that the district was the most famous that the house must also be famous. If this ain't a typo, I have big questions. ... Thanks Dave, that helps!

[Dave Killoran]

Is this a typo? I thought that this was a whole to part fallacy--assuming from the fact that the district was the most famous that the house must also be famous. If this ain't a typo, I have big questions. Thanks powerscore!

Hi Oops,

Well, I personally would call this a whole-to-part error (which is also known as an error of division), but there are multiple pieces floating around which make it difficult identify the relationships, and so let's talk about what is going on here and hopefully that will make everything clear

In the argument, the following pieces are present:

• Houses (part) in the Historic District (whole);
  
  Historic District (part) in the City (whole)

In argumentation the premises are typically accepted as given, and the primary point of analysis is whether the conclusion follows from those premises. With that in mind, let's look at what we can take as fact:

• Premise: "Of all the houses in the city’s historic district, the house that once belonged to the Tyler family is the most famous by far."
  
  Premise: "Since the historic district is the most famous district in the city, ..."

So, what we have is that the Tyler house is the most famous house in the historic district, and that the historic district is the most famous in the city.

From the above pieces of info, does it follow that "the Tyler house must be the city’s most famous house?" No, and that's where we have our problem.The exact flaw here comes from the whole-to-part relationship between the historic district and the Tyler house, specifically in saying that the historic district (whole) is the most famous in the city so therefore the Tyler house (part) is the most famous in the city.

I think the part-to-whole relationship quickly referenced by Athena is that the Tyler house (part) is the most famous house in the city (the whole). That relationship exists, but it is a byproduct of the flaw I mentioned in the prior paragraph. What it does point to is how confusing this can all be when you have multiple pieces, and specifically how one element (in this case, the historic district) can be both a part and a whole!

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!

[biskam]

I chose E but was tempted by A because of the similarity in structure.... is A incorrect because it's valid?

Thanks!

[Dave Killoran]

I chose E but was tempted by A because of the similarity in structure.... is A incorrect because it's valid?

Thanks!

Yes, you are exactly right. Good work!