Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardStatement and Assumptions

Consider the policy announcement below and evaluate the subsequent assumptions.

Policy Announcement: To mitigate alarming groundwater depletion in the western region, the Agriculture Ministry has launched a direct cash transfer scheme for cultivators who voluntarily switch from water-intensive sugarcane to drought-resistant pulse crops for the upcoming season.

Assumption I: Cultivators in the western region consider financial incentives to be a significant factor when deciding which crops to plant.
Assumption II: The cultivation of sugarcane extracts a higher volume of groundwater per hectare than the cultivation of pulse crops.

Based on the principles of logical reasoning, which of the assumptions is/are implicit in the policy announcement?

  1. Only assumption I is implicitAnswer
  2. B
    Only assumption II is implicit
  3. C
    Both assumptions I and II are implicit
  4. D
    Neither assumption I nor II is implicit

Answer

Only assumption I is implicit.
An assumption is an unstated premise that must be true for the argument or policy to be logical. The policy relies entirely on direct cash transfers to encourage a change in agricultural behavior. Therefore, the author of the policy must implicitly assume that cultivators are motivated by financial incentives, making the first candidate a valid assumption. However, the second candidate is not an assumption; it is a direct inference. The policy explicitly labels sugarcane as 'water-intensive' and pulse crops as 'drought-resistant,' meaning the difference in their relative water consumption is an explicitly stated fact, not an unstated assumption.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Define what constitutes a valid assumption in logical reasoning.
An assumption is defined as an unstated or hidden premise that must necessarily be true for the statement's core logic or directive to hold.
Establishing the criteria for evaluation prevents confusing assumptions with inferences or external facts.
2
Analyze the core logic of the Policy Announcement.
The Ministry aims to change crop cultivation choices by offering direct cash transfers as an incentive.
Identifying the mechanism of the policy helps uncover its underlying dependencies.
3
Evaluate Assumption I against the policy mechanism.
If the cash transfer policy is to be logically sound, the Ministry must fundamentally believe that cultivators care about financial incentives when choosing crops. This is an unstated, necessary premise, making it implicit.
To verify if an assumption is valid, we test if the statement's logic would fail without it.
4
Evaluate Assumption II against the definition of an assumption.
The announcement already explicitly describes sugarcane as 'water-intensive' and pulses as 'drought-resistant'. Thus, Assumption II is a direct logical inference derived from stated facts, not an unstated assumption.
Assumptions must be unstated. Explicit facts or direct inferences drawn from them cannot be categorized as assumptions.

Key Concept

Distinguishing between unstated premises (assumptions) and logical conclusions (inferences)
Rate this question

Topics

Statement and Assumptions

More questions from this topic