PT39-S4-Q14
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 3:07 pm
Can someone please explain why A is correct and the others are false? I'm having difficult with this question, I don't know if it's the language or what. Thanks!
We're looking for what most justifies the scientists' conclusions:
(B) affirms the consequent: We're given in the stimulus that complexity based mathematical models evolve in a manner similar to real-world phenomena. It is only possible that the antecedent of (B)--the correctness of the theory of complexity--caused what we were given in the stimulus. In other words, we cannot validly conclude what the scientists did from the combination of the stimulus and (B) alone. The conclusion can be drawn logically (A) and the stimulus alone, however.
(C) may be true, but so what? The scientists conclusion regards the correctness of complexity: not whether the computers that employ the theories themselves will eventually discover whether it is correct.
(D) attributes to complexity theory something which it does not even state. Besides, it's of the form "If this is true, then this is; and that's what complexity predicts"--this does little to testify to the correctness of complexity.
(E) is almost totally irrelevant. Scientists' errors in calculation aren't even mentioned in the stimulus.