#10 - Every political philosopher of the early twentieth

[ericsilvagomez]

Hi,

For this question, I chose D, and I understand why I got it incorrect: unlike A, it refers to every twentieth-century political philosopher, and the stimulus does not support that. Although I get the first part of the diagram, I do not get the part when you add "non-totalitarian." Does adding that make it a chain link? And wouldn't it be in the middle? I hope I am referring to the correct part of the LR Bible.

[srusty]

Hi Eric!

For sure, I understand where you're coming from. One way you can approach this is to rephrase the stimulus, and then diagram. It's a Must Be True question, so we know that our answer will be fully supported by the stimulus.

Rephrasing the stimulus: If you are a political philosopher of the early 20th century who is either a socialist/communist, you were influenced by Rosa Luxemburg. If you were influenced by Rosa Luxemburg, you did not advocate for a totalitarian state.

Diagram: S/C philosopher in 20th cent ---> influenced by Rosa L
influenced by Rosa L ---> ~totalitarian advocacy

Both these chains are linked by "influenced by Rosa L". Answer choice (A), which reads "No early-twentieth-century socialist political philosopher advocated a totalitarian state." We know this Must Be True because a "early-twentieth-century socialist political philosopher" would fall in the bucket of being "a political philosopher of the early 20th century who is either a socialist or communist." What do we know about this bucket? We know that they were influenced by Rosa L, and anyone influenced by Rosa L does not advocate for a totalitarian state.

Let me know if that's helpful!

[ericsilvagomez]

Hi,

I think it was helpful! By rephrasing the stimulus, did you mean to start each sentence with a sufficient condition like "If"? And is rephrasing a stimulus like that something I can do with every LG question?

[Robert Carroll]

ericsilvagomez,

If conditional language is difficult to understand, rephrasing the stimulus to involve "if...then" statements, to facilitate diagramming, can be helpful. Regardless, you should be diagramming any conditional reasoning you see in a stimulus.

If conditional reasoning isn't present, this won't work. This is really all about recognizing when conditionals are present and making it easier to diagram them. You should pay very careful attention to conditional indicator words and phrases.

Not every Logical Reasoning stimulus will involve conditionals, so this cannot be done every time. Only when conditionals are present.

Robert Carroll