Q10 - Even in a democracy

[vincent_1vs]

I was able to correctly chose (C), but I was tempted by (B) during the preptest. I'll try to break it down:


--if the info is of commercial/national-security value, it's dissemination needs to be restricted.
--if the destination is to current/future competitors/enemies, the dissemination of that type of info should be prohibited.
--but there must be free exchange of scientific info.

(A), (D), (E) can be quickly eliminated as they are required for the principle to follow.

(C) is irrelevant. We don't care if some research is more advanced in one country than another, we only care if they have commercial/national-security value. Besides, "basic scientific research" is just out of scope.

It took me a while to determine if (B) is relevant. but then I realized if the public have "detailed knowledge" of the country's advanced technology, the dissemination would already have been taken place. Am I right?

[maryadkins]

Good job!

[rikky.brown]

I narrowed it down to B and C in this one. I ultimately chose C because I felt that in B one would need to rely on the fact that the public has no detailed knowledge of advanced technology in the country; if public actually had detailed knowledge then perhaps they could pass this information along to individuals in other countries who are either enemies or potential competitors. With C, I felt that the advancement of scientific research had no bearing since it would not be restricted in any case. I was wondering if my thoughts on B vs. C were off base or not? Is there an additional reason to include B?

[christine.defenbaugh]

I narrowed it down to B and C in this one. I ultimately chose C because I felt that in B one would need to rely on the fact that the public has no detailed knowledge of advanced technology in the country; if public actually had detailed knowledge then perhaps they could pass this information along to individuals in other countries who are either enemies or potential competitors. With C, I felt that the advancement of scientific research had no bearing since it would not be restricted in any case. I was wondering if my thoughts on B vs. C were off base or not? Is there an additional reason to include B?

Great thoughts, rikky.brown!

We know we need (B) to be true, because if we take it away, we have a serious problem! If it were necessary in a democracy that the public have detailed knowledge of the advanced tech, then there would be to may to "restrict" the dissemination!

And you are spot on about (C) - the future advancement isn't at all relevant, and the comparison of democracies to non-democracies is a bit weird in any case! The only comparison between countries that happened in the stimulus was between competitors/enemies and friendly countries.

Great work!

[lsatsidekick]

Hey! Just want some clarification of the argument core please.

P-dissemination to competitors/enemies should be selective
P-necessary to restrict technology of commercial or national security level
C-there must be some free exchange of scientific info

When I first read it, I was confused because of the change from technology to scientific. When I realized this was a necessary assumption, the core I came up with seemed more plausible than it initially did. I answered correctly, but if I was doing this timed, I would have skipped it due to my discomfort with the core.

Do I have the core correct?

[ohthatpatrick]

The question stem doesn't call this an 'argument' or 'reasoning', so there's no need to try to find an argument core.

It calls it "a position", which could just be one, unsupported claim.

The first sentence DOES support the second. However, (pun intended) the first two do NOT support the third. It has a pivot word: "however".

I would zero in on the two prescriptive ideas: "should" and "must"
- we should selectively prohibit disseminating valuable info to our competitors/enemies.
while
- still keeping a free exchange of scientific information

[AndreeaC327]

Oh my, I would have never figured all of that out on my own...