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I have a question involving PT 15 (June 1995), Section 3, #7 (logical reasoning). The question is as follows:

1. Unless our nation redistributes wealth, we will be unable to alleviate economic injustice and our current system will lead inevitably to intolerable economic inequities. If the inequities become intolerable, those who suffer from the injustice will resort to violence to coerce social reform. It is our nation's responsibility to do whatever is necessary to alleviate conditions that would otherwise give rise to violent attempts at social reform.

I was between these two choices:

B: It is our nation's responsibility to redistribute wealth (correct answer)
E: All that is required to create conditions of economic justice is the redistribution of wealth

Luckily I got the answer correct just because of the statement "it is our nation's responsibility to do whatever is necessary to alleviate conditions" which is the last line of the stimulus.

However, why isn't E correct? The first line says, "unless our nation redistributes wealth, we will be unable to alleviate economic injustice", and since the author didn't write of any other conditions that are necessary, then the only condition required is the national redistribution of wealth right? I know that is wrong but I was wondering why.

If the statement read, "only if our nation redistributes wealth will we be able to alleviate economic injustice", does THAT mean that the other necessary condition is the national redistribution of wealth?

Thank you so much in advance, this one is really bugging me.

Bigsby wrote: However, why isn't E correct? The first line says, "unless our nation redistributes wealth, we will be unable to alleviate economic injustice", and since the author didn't write of any other conditions that are necessary, then the only condition required is the national redistribution of wealth right? I know that is wrong but I was wondering why.

If the statement read, "only if our nation redistributes wealth will we be able to alleviate economic injustice", does THAT mean that the other necessary condition is the national redistribution of wealth?

"Unless" and "Only if" are the same. Both indicate necessary conditions. The question only asks you to paraphrase the stimulus. That is, you can only use information already present. (E) is incorrect because it changes redistributing wealth into a sufficient condition ("All that is required").

You cannot infer that there are no other necessary conditions. You may not know what they are, but you should always allow for the possibility when trying to rephrase the stimulus. (E) does not do that.

E turns redistribution fo wealth into a sufficient condition?

It says ALL that is required...is the redistribution of wealth in order to create conditions of economic justice.

Doesn't that mean:

EJ>WR

EJ=economic justice
WR=wealth redistibution

?

Bigsby wrote:E turns redistribution fo wealth into a sufficient condition?

It says ALL that is required...is the redistribution of wealth in order to create conditions of economic justice.

Doesn't that mean:

EJ>WR

EJ=economic justice
WR=wealth redistibution

?

Other way around.

WR --> EJ
"All that is required" means that that redistributing wealth is sufficient, or rather, it is enough to achieve economic justice.

For example, if your professor said, "All you need to do to get an 'A' in the class is ace the final", you would interpret that as "Acing the final is sufficient to get an 'A'".

what if my professor said,

"getting an A requires a good presentation"

A>good presentation

all that is required for getting an A is a good presentation means:

good presentation>A

?

I just always associated required with necessary, that's why I'm a little rocked right now haha

Bigsby wrote:what if my professor said,

"getting an A requires a good presentation"

A>good presentation

all that is required for getting an A is a good presentation means:

good presentation>A

?

I just always associated required with necessary, that's why I'm a little rocked right now haha

Yup, that looks right. You can't treat the word in isolation. "All that is required" is different from "requires" in the same way "if" is not the same as "only if", even though they both contain the same word (the former in both examples is followed by a sufficient condition, the latter a necessary).

Eh. I should add a caveat.

It's possible that "all that is required" makes what follows both necessary and sufficient. I dunno. In any case that would still incorrect though, since redistribution is merely necessary in the stimulus, NOT sufficient, and adding information is doing it wrong.

510Chicken wrote:"Unless" and "Only if" are the same. Both indicate necessary conditions.

FYI, 'Unless' and 'only if' are not equivalent, even though they both introduce necessary conditions.

sundance95 wrote:FYI, 'Unless' and 'only if' are not equivalent, even though they both introduce necessary conditions.

"Unless" and "if not", however, are.