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Zorluk: Çok zorRuling Out Alternate Explanations (Defender)

Read the following argument and evaluate the subsequent statement.

Historian: During the 1880s, the National Telegraph Company's adoption of the duplex telegraph system—which permitted simultaneous bidirectional transmission—coincided with a 30 percent reduction in garbled dispatches. Clearly, the continuous electrical current required by the duplex system actively suppressed the ambient magnetic interference that typically causes signal degradation.

Statement: A necessary assumption of the historian's argument is that the installation of the duplex telegraph system did not simultaneously require replacing the company's existing unshielded wires with heavily insulated cables.

Cevap: Cevap

Cevap

True
The statement is True because it correctly identifies a necessary defender assumption. The argument claims a specific mechanism (continuous current) caused a specific result (suppressed interference). To defend this precise causal claim against alternative causes, the argument must assume that no other interference-suppressing mechanism—such as heavily insulated cables—was introduced at the exact same time.

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1
Analyze the argument's structure and causal claim.
Premise: Adoption of the duplex system coincided with fewer errors. Conclusion: The continuous electrical current of the duplex system suppressed magnetic interference.
Understanding the exact mechanism the author credits (the continuous current) is essential for identifying vulnerabilities in the reasoning.
2
Identify the logical gap.
The argument assumes that a correlation (duplex installation and error reduction) implies a very specific causation, ignoring other factors that might have been introduced during the installation process.
Causal arguments based on correlation are inherently vulnerable to alternate explanations, requiring 'defender' assumptions to rule them out.
3
Apply the Negation Technique to the provided statement.
Negated statement: The installation of the duplex telegraph system DID simultaneously require replacing the company's existing unshielded wires with heavily insulated cables.
The Negation Technique is the definitive logical test for necessary assumptions on the LSAT.
4
Evaluate the impact of the negated statement on the conclusion.
If heavily insulated cables were installed simultaneously, the physical insulation provides a superior alternative explanation for the suppression of magnetic interference, thereby destroying the historian's claim that the continuous current was responsible.
A statement whose logical opposite destroys the argument is, by definition, a logically necessary assumption.

Anahtar Kavram

Ruling Out Alternate Explanations (Defender Assumptions) and the Negation Technique
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Konular

Ruling Out Alternate Explanations (Defender)

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