Clearly, a democracy cannot thrive without effective news media. After all, a democracy cannot thrive without an electorate that is knowledgeable about important political issues, and an electorate can be knowledgeable in this way only if it has access to unbiased information about the government.

Summary
The author concludes that in order for a democracy to thrive, there must be effective news media. This is based on the following:
In order for a democracy to thrive, it must have an electorate that is knowledgeable about important political issues. And in order for an electorate to be knowledgeable about important political issues, it must have access to unbiased info about the government.

Missing Connection
We know from the premises that in order for a democracy to thrive, the electorate must have access to unbiased info about the government. But the conclusion jumps to the claim that we need “effective news media” for a democracy to thrive. We don’t know anything about “effective news media” is required for from the premises. So we want to add a claim that establishes that in order for an electorate to get unbiased info about the government, there must be effective news media.

A
All societies that have effective news media are thriving democracies.
(A) establishes that societies with effective news media have thriving democracies. But this doesn’t imply that in order to be a thriving democracy, it’s necessary to have effective news media. So (A) doesn’t guarantee the conclusion.
B
If an electorate has access to unbiased information about the government, then that electorate will be knowledgeable about important political issues.
(B) doesn’t say anything about what effective news media is required for. Since the premises also don’t say anything about that, there’s no way that (B), in connection with the premises, could prove a conclusion concerning what effective news media is required for.
C
A democracy will thrive if its electorate is knowledgeable about important political issues.
(C) doesn’t say anything about what effective news media is required for. Since the premises also don’t say anything about that, there’s no way that (C), in connection with the premises, could prove a conclusion concerning what effective news media is required for.
D
A democracy cannot thrive if the electorate is exposed to biased information about the government.
(D) doesn’t say anything about what effective news media is required for. Since the premises also don’t say anything about that, there’s no way that (D), in connection with the premises, could prove a conclusion concerning what effective news media is required for.
E
Without effective news media, an electorate will not have access to unbiased information about the government.
(E) establishes that effective news media is necessary for an electorate to have access to unbiased info about the government. In connection with the premises, this proves that an effective news media is necessary for a thriving democracy.

5 comments

Roberta is irritable only when she is tired, and loses things only when she is tired. Since she has been yawning all day, and has just lost her keys, she is almost certainly irritable.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that Roberta is probably irritable. He supports this with the following premises:

(1) If Roberta is irritable, then she is tired.

(2) If Roberta loses things, then she is tired.

(3) Roberta is yawning and she lost her keys.

Identify and Describe Flaw
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of confusing necessary and sufficient conditions. Roberta yawning might suggest that she’s tired, but we also know that if she loses something, then she is tired. Because she lost something (her keys), the author could correctly conclude that Roberta is tired. But instead, he concludes that she is irritable.

The argument establishes that Roberta is tired, but the author treats “tired” as sufficient for “irritable.” According to premise 1, “tired” is necessary. In other words, Roberta could be losing things and therefore be tired but still not be irritable.

A
infers from a correlation between tiredness and yawning that tiredness causes yawning
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of assuming correlation proves causation. The author doesn’t make this mistake. He says that Roberta is yawning, but never assumes that this is caused by her tiredness. Because she lost her keys, we know that Roberta is indeed tired.
B
assumes the conclusion that it sets out to prove
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of circular reasoning, where the argument’s conclusion merely restates a premise. The author doesn't make this mistake. His premises may not support his conclusion well, but they are distinct from his conclusion.
C
generalizes on the basis of a single instance
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of hasty generalization, where an argument draws a broad conclusion from too little evidence. The author doesn’t make this mistake. He draws a conclusion about Roberta based on evidence about Roberta; he never generalizes about anyone else.
D
takes a necessary condition for Roberta’s losing things to be a sufficient condition
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of confusing necessary and sufficient conditions. The author does make this mistake, but not in the way that (D) describes. He thinks that Roberta being tired is sufficient for her being irritable, not that it’s sufficient for her losing things.
E
takes a necessary condition for Roberta’s being irritable to be a sufficient condition
The argument says that Roberta lost her keys, which means that she’s tired. The author then treats “tired” as sufficient for Roberta’s being irritable, but according to the premises, “tired” is necessary. Roberta could be tired but not irritable.

25 comments

There is an excellent question raised about how an "and" got translated into an "or". I did not explain that in the video so I'm going to clarify here.

The original statement is: The only songs Amanda has ever written are blues songs and punk rock songs.

Following the naive translation mechanisms that we learned, we identify "the only" as Group 1 (sufficient) and the two ideas as [songs Amanda has ever written] and [blues songs and punk rock songs]. We translate as A -> B and P

But that's wrong. The conjunction in the necessary condition is incorrect. It should actually be "B or P".

To correctly understand the original statement, we have to appeal to our intuitions. We first identify the domain as the set of all past songs that Amanda has ever written. That's the set of songs we're talking about. Not the set of songs that Amanda might or will write in the future. Not the set of songs that Beihai or Chibi Maruko wrote. No. We're looking at the set of songs that Amanda has already written in the past.

Now look into that set. Pick up a random member (i.e. song). What is true of that song? Think about this.

Is it true that the song is simultaneously a blues song and a punk rock song? Well, no. That can't be true. Because that would contradict the meaning of "blues song" and "punk rock song". A blues song is precisely not a punk rock song (just like how it's precisely not a rap song or a reggae song). And vice versa. What we're actually saying about any particular song under that domain is that it must be either a blues song or a punk rock song. B or P. A -> B or P

That's must be the right interpretation. But how did the "and" in the original statement turn out to express an "or" in the logical relationship?

The answer is that it didn't. The word "and" isn't what laid down the or relationship. Rather, the or relationship was laid down when the sentence forced the categories of blues and punk rock together under one domain.

I think this is something we can see more clearly in the following examples because we're more familiar with animal categorizations than we are with musical categorizations.
All the pets the Gupta family has ever owned have been fish and parrots.
Every pet the Gupta family has ever owned have been fish and parrots.
The Gupta family has never owned any pets other than fish and parrots.

All three sentences express the same idea. All three sentences also happen to use "and". And all three sentences are expressing "fish or parrot". Here we're talking about a different domain. The domain is the set of all pets the Gupta family has ever owned. Look into that set. Pick up one member (i.e. pet). What is true about that member? Is it the case that it is both a fish and a parrot? No, because what the fuck is a fish-parrot? What is true is that the pet was either a fish or a parrot. The or relationship between fish and parrot existed as soon as you forced the two categories under the same domain. pet -> fish or parrot


9 comments

In a recent study of stroke patients, those who exhibited continuing deterioration of the nerve cells in the brain after the stroke also exhibited the highest levels of the protein glutamate in their blood. Glutamate, which functions within nerve cells as a neurotransmitter, can kill surrounding nerve cells if it leaks from damaged or oxygen-starved nerve cells. Thus glutamate leaking from damaged or oxygen-starved nerve cells is a cause of long-term brain damage resulting from strokes.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that glutamate leaking from damaged or oxygen-starved nerve cells is a cause of long-term brain damage resulting from strokes. This is based on the fact that in a study of stroke patients, those who showed deterioration of nerve cells in the brain also exhibited the highest levels of glutamate in the blood. In addition, glutamate can kill surrounding nerve cells if it leaks from damaged or oxygen-starved nerve cells.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the glutamate observed in the blood leaked from damaged or oxygen-starved nerve cells (as opposed to originating from another source). The author assumes there’s no other explanation for the continued deterioration of nerve cells in the patients observed.

A
Any neurotransmitter that leaks from a damaged or oxygen-starved nerve cell will damage surrounding nerve cells.
If anything, this might undermine the argument by raising the possibility that some other neurotransmitter besides glutamate might be the cause of damaged nerve cells in stroke patients.
B
Stroke patients exhibit a wide variety of abnormal chemical levels in their blood.
The presence of other chemicals in blood does not help establish a connection between glutamate and the damaged brain nerve cells in stroke patients. We want to know that the glutamate leaked from damaged/oxygen-starved nerve cells. (B) doesn’t establish this.
C
Glutamate is the only neurotransmitter that leaks from oxygen-starved or physically damaged nerve cells.
We care about where the glutamate in the blood came from, not whether there are other kinds of chemicals that could come from damaged/oxygen-starved cells.
D
Leakage from damaged or oxygen-starved nerve cells is the only possible source of glutamate in the blood.
This strengthens by establishing that the glutamate observed in the blood of stroke patients must come from damaged/oxygen-starved nerve cells. This makes the premise concerning damage/oxygen-starved nerve cells more supportive of the conclusion.
E
Nerve cells can suffer enough damage to leak glutamate without being destroyed themselves.
We want to know that the glutamate leaked from damaged/oxygen-starved nerve cells. (E) doesn’t establish this. It simply tells us that nerve cells can leak glutamate without destroying themselves. But did the glutamate leak from damaged cells? We don’t know.

45 comments

There is an excellent question raised about how an "and" got translated into an "or". I did not explain that in the video so I'm going to clarify here.

The original statement is: The only songs Amanda has ever written are blues songs and punk rock songs.

Following the naive translation mechanisms that we learned, we identify "the only" as Group 1 (sufficient) and the two ideas as [songs Amanda has ever written] and [blues songs and punk rock songs]. We translate as A -> B and P

But that's wrong. The conjunction in the necessary condition is incorrect. It should actually be "B or P".

To correctly understand the original statement, we have to appeal to our intuitions. We first identify the domain as the set of all past songs that Amanda has ever written. That's the set of songs we're talking about. Not the set of songs that Amanda might or will write in the future. Not the set of songs that Beihai or Chibi Maruko wrote. No. We're looking at the set of songs that Amanda has already written in the past.

Now look into that set. Pick up a random member (i.e. song). What is true of that song? Think about this.

Is it true that the song is simultaneously a blues song and a punk rock song? Well, no. That can't be true. Because that would contradict the meaning of "blues song" and "punk rock song". A blues song is precisely not a punk rock song (just like how it's precisely not a rap song or a reggae song). And vice versa. What we're actually saying about any particular song under that domain is that it must be either a blues song or a punk rock song. B or P. A -> B or P

That's must be the right interpretation. But how did the "and" in the original statement turn out to express an "or" in the logical relationship?

The answer is that it didn't. The word "and" isn't what laid down the or relationship. Rather, the or relationship was laid down when the sentence forced the categories of blues and punk rock together under one domain.

I think this is something we can see more clearly in the following examples because we're more familiar with animal categorizations than we are with musical categorizations.
All the pets the Gupta family has ever owned have been fish and parrots.
Every pet the Gupta family has ever owned have been fish and parrots.
The Gupta family has never owned any pets other than fish and parrots.

All three sentences express the same idea. All three sentences also happen to use "and". And all three sentences are expressing "fish or parrot". Here we're talking about a different domain. The domain is the set of all pets the Gupta family has ever owned. Look into that set. Pick up one member (i.e. pet). What is true about that member? Is it the case that it is both a fish and a parrot? No, because what the fuck is a fish-parrot? What is true is that the pet was either a fish or a parrot. The or relationship between fish and parrot existed as soon as you forced the two categories under the same domain. pet -> fish or parrot


9 comments