Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardParallel Flaw

The annual spring festival will definitely not be held in the town square this year. We know this because the festival is held in the square whenever the municipal budget runs a surplus and the mayor's office approves the permit. However, the municipal budget is not running a surplus this year.

Which one of the following arguments exhibits a flawed pattern of reasoning most similar to that exhibited by the argument above?

  1. Whenever the beta testing phase finds no critical bugs and the marketing campaign is finalized, the new software update is released on schedule. Yet, because the marketing campaign has not been finalized, the software update will not be released on schedule.Answer
  2. B
    The proposed zoning ordinance will not be passed by the city council. We can be certain of this because the ordinance is passed whenever it receives endorsement from the local business association or the environmental committee, and the environmental committee has refused to endorse it.
  3. C
    The annual spring festival is held in the town square whenever the municipal budget runs a surplus and the mayor's office approves the permit. Since the festival is being held in the town square this year, the municipal budget must be running a surplus.
  4. D
    Private donations must have exceeded targets and federal grants must have been secured. This is clear because the hospital's new wing is constructed whenever private donations exceed targets and federal grants are secured, and construction on the new wing has begun.
  5. E
    Most employees receive a year-end bonus whenever the company exceeds its annual revenue targets and employee performance reviews are positive. The company failed to exceed its annual revenue targets, so most employees will not receive a year-end bonus.

Answer

The argument concluding that the software update will not be released on schedule because the marketing campaign has not been finalized.
The stimulus commits an illegal negation by treating a compound sufficient condition as a necessary one. It establishes that two things together (budget surplus AND permit approval) guarantee an outcome. It then points out that one of those things didn't happen, and concludes the outcome won't happen. The correct answer has the exact same structure: it establishes that two things (no bugs AND marketing finalized) guarantee an outcome (released on schedule), notes that one didn't happen (marketing not finalized), and relies on flawed logic to conclude the outcome will not happen.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus to identify the conclusion and premises.
Conclusion: The festival will not be held in the square. Premise 1: If budget runs a surplus AND permit is approved, then the festival is held in the square. Premise 2: The budget is not running a surplus.
Deconstructing the argument into formal logic is necessary to identify the exact structural flaw before examining the choices.
2
Identify the logical flaw in the stimulus.
The flaw is an illegal negation of a compound sufficient condition. The argument assumes that because one required part of the sufficient condition failed, the necessary result cannot occur, ignoring that there could be alternate ways to trigger the result.
Knowing the precise flaw prevents being distracted by arguments that are flawed but structurally different.
3
Evaluate the answer choices to find the matching abstract structure.
The software update argument matches: Premise 1 is (No bugs AND marketing finalized) -> released on schedule. Premise 2 is ~Marketing finalized. Conclusion is ~Released on schedule.
The correct answer in a Parallel Flaw question must match both the specific logical error and the structural components of the original argument.

Key Concept

Parallel Flaw - Illegal Negation of a Compound Condition
Rate this question

Topics

Parallel Flaw

More questions from this topic