Ok so this is a part/whole fallacy but I got question about it. I was tricked up on the idea of "most scientists" and the term individuals in the answer choice. I was not considering the idea that most scientists=individuals . Which leads me to my next point, considering that, are we to infer that the scientific community as a whole is made up of more than just scientists? If it were, most scientists would be seen as individuals because they don't make up the entirety of the field?
Just a little confused on why premise says most scientists while the answer choice says individuals.
PT 35-4-#18 Forum
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mornincounselor
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Last edited by mornincounselor on Mon Nov 09, 2015 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ltowns1
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Re: PT 35-4-#18
Yep A it was lol, but I wasn't' really in love with (a) it was just that I could not justify the "individuals" part of answer choice b) from the stimulus....wait a minute, are we getting the indiviaual part from where it says "personal activities" in the stimulus?mornincounselor wrote:Premise: Scientists (like most people) are self interested.
Premise: Most Scientists (due in part to self interest) direct their personal activities towards career advancement primarily and to the pursuit of truth only secondarily.
Conclusion: Hence, the scientific community as a whole direct their activities towards improving the community as a whole and to the pursuit of truth only secondarily.
The flaw lies in assuming that what is true of each individual scientist is true of the scientific community as a whole. (I think there is an additional flaw that personal career advancement /= community status advancement.)
I think (.c) (d) and (e) are no wheres near correct for the question, (b) is the correct choice, was it choice (a) that tripped you up?
A is patently untrue, the test writers do not assume that premise two (about most scientists) is true of each and every single scientist. If the conclusion had been "Hence, each and every single scientist directs . . . and the pursuit of truth only secondarily," then they would have assumed A.
But when we look to the conclusion we see they reached a conclusion about the scientific community in general and they reached that conclusion by using a premise about individual scientists.
