by Joetrot88 Sat Oct 13, 2012 1:12 pm
Okay, this one you should chart to get the answer rapid fast.. This is how you do it
W= warm during winter
G=gloves M=mittens
X=extra clothes
V=vital organs
CONCLUSION: W-> ~g or ~m
W -> X
V-> W
To weaken an argument you must do 1 of 2 things
1.) attack on premise to disprove the conclusion
2.) or attack on conclusion directly
A.) Talks about psychological issues here
*irrelevant
B.) One or two garments are mentioned
*irrelevant - not in argument
D.) W->X less effective than heat
*out of scope- Were not talking about the heat here, we're talking strictly about gloves, mittens and clothing. Although this could be true, the argument has no support for this statement or I should actually say this statement has no business weakening our argument.
E.) *out of scope - were not talking about the physical effort, we're talking about what the CLOTHES will do. This is wrong for the same reason D is wrong
C.) X->~w
This is a direct missile headed straight at one of our premises (W->X). If X->~w were true, than here we would have an incorrect reversal, therefore disentangling the argument and proving C as the CORRECT answer.
The approach above is the correct approach, however here's a detailed explanation.
C.) If wearing extra clothes would not keep someones hands warm at VERY low temps( enough to cause frostbite and lose a hand!).... than this would show that our conclusion (To keep hands warm, one NEVER needs gloves or mittens ) CAN be a false statement because this opens up the argument for someone to POSSIBLY need gloves or mittens in CERTAIN situations. It's not air tight, but it weakens the conclusion more-so than the other answer choices.
So, my personal argument here is, if you charted this than it's more clear of what the answer is right away. This approach takes reasoning and more importantly, TIME.