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Difficulty: MediumAssumptions in Conditional Logic

Political theorist: A political revolution can be successful only if it has the broad support of the working class. However, a revolution cannot garner broad working-class support unless its leaders clearly articulate a tangible economic benefit to the public. Therefore, the recent uprising in the southern province will definitely not be a successful political revolution.

Which one of the following, if assumed, enables the argument's conclusion to be properly drawn?

  1. The leaders of the recent uprising in the southern province failed to clearly articulate a tangible economic benefit to the public.Answer
  2. B
    If the leaders of the recent uprising had clearly articulated a tangible economic benefit, the revolution would have been successful.
  3. C
    Any political revolution that is not successful is one whose leaders failed to clearly articulate a tangible economic benefit.
  4. D
    A political revolution will garner the broad support of the working class if its leaders clearly articulate a tangible economic benefit.
  5. E
    The recent uprising in the southern province was motivated primarily by ideological differences rather than by a desire for tangible economic benefits.

Answer

The leaders of the recent uprising in the southern province failed to clearly articulate a tangible economic benefit to the public.
The argument relies on a conditional chain: a revolution is successful only if it has broad support, and it has broad support only if leaders articulate an economic benefit (Successful -> Broad Support -> Articulate Benefit). The conclusion asserts that the recent uprising will not be successful. To logically guarantee this conclusion, we must trigger the contrapositive of the chain: if the leaders fail to articulate an economic benefit, the revolution will lack broad support and thus cannot be successful. The correct answer provides this exact missing trigger by stating the leaders failed to articulate the benefit.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the premises and their conditional relationships.
Premise 1: Successful Revolution -> Broad Working-Class Support. Premise 2: Broad Working-Class Support -> Articulate Economic Benefit.
Mapping the conditional statements is essential for finding the logical structure of the argument.
2
Combine the premises to form a logical chain.
Successful Revolution -> Broad Working-Class Support -> Articulate Economic Benefit.
Chaining the premises reveals the ultimate necessary conditions for a successful revolution.
3
Determine the contrapositive of the logical chain.
If leaders DO NOT articulate an economic benefit -> NO broad support -> NOT a successful revolution.
The conclusion asserts a negative outcome (the uprising will not be successful), so the contrapositive shows what triggers that specific outcome.
4
Identify the missing link required to logically guarantee the conclusion.
The argument concludes the recent uprising will NOT be successful. To prove this using the contrapositive chain, we must assume that the uprising's leaders failed to articulate a tangible economic benefit.
Adding this assumption triggers the contrapositive chain, which definitively proves the conclusion.

Key Concept

Sufficient Assumptions and Contrapositives in Conditional Logic
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Assumptions in Conditional Logic

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