Negation

[spencerrgibbs]

Quick question about negation, specifically logical negation as it relates to Necessary Assumption qs.

I'm a bit confused over how to (logically) negate answer choices that feature conjunctions and disjunctions

Do inclusive disjuncts "A or B" become "A or B but not both"

And do conjunctions "A and B" become "Neither A nor B"

how about exclusive disjuncts for that matter?

Thanks!

[tommywallach]

Generally, I'd say you're overthinking things. I've seen none to few of these in all the tests. But negation should usually be the least extreme possible. For example:

X or Y caused the problem --> X or Y did not cause the problem (it had to be a third thing)

I always encourage people to avoid asking these general questions, and instead ask follow-ups about REAL questions that have shown up. You might expect a level of language complexity that the LSAT simply won't throw at you. But feel free to ask this question on specific threads if you find a question that really does revolve around this sort of thing.

-t