PrepTest 105, Section 2, Question 21
Some people have been promoting a new herbal(88 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(18 more words not shown)
- Afinding a claim(16 more words not shown)
- Baccepting a claim(9 more words not shown)
- Cshowing that conditions(10 more words not shown)
- Dbasing a generalization(6 more words not shown)
- Eshowing that a(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
People might simply not know about the remedy. Wanting to recover quickly doesn't mean a person has heard of every effective treatment, so nonuse alone doesn't persuade me that the mixture fails.
But this question asks how the skeptic reasons, not how we would challenge that reasoning. We need to describe the steps the skeptic takes even though we disagree with a step along the way.
The skeptic temporarily supposes that the mixture works. From that, the skeptic predicts that almost everybody with a cold would use it. Many people don't use it, so the predicted consequence isn't happening. The skeptic takes that as a reason to reject the starting claim that the mixture works.
What we’re looking for
Our description should capture that test: if this claim were true, we would see this result; we don't see the result; therefore, the claim is false. We can describe the attempted test without accepting the claim that effectiveness would actually produce near-universal use.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Match each piece to the argument. The claim found false is “the mixture is an effective cold remedy.” Its supposed consequence is that almost everybody with a cold uses it. The skeptic says that consequence is false because many cold sufferers don't use the mixture, and therefore rejects its effectiveness.
The answer describes the skeptic's grounds for the conclusion. It doesn't certify that those grounds are sound. Our objection about awareness challenges the predicted consequence, but the skeptic is still using that predicted consequence to test the claim.
- B
The evidence is what people do, not what they say or believe about the mixture. This would fit an argument such as “Most people believe the remedy is ineffective, so it must be ineffective.”
Instead, the skeptic reasons that an effective remedy would be widely used and observes that it isn't. People might have no opinion because they have never heard of it. The distinction between public behavior and public opinion matters here.
- C
The skeptic doesn't show that required conditions are met and use that to establish a claim's truth. The skeptic treats widespread use as something effectiveness would require, then says that widespread use is missing. This answer describes establishing conditions; the argument relies on a supposed condition's absence to reject effectiveness.
- D
There is no representative sample of treatment results. An example of that method would be treating a representative group, observing their recoveries, and drawing a conclusion about how the remedy works more generally. Here we hear about people not using the mixture, not a group whose experience with the mixture is being generalized to everyone else.
- E
Ineffective isn't the same as counterproductive. The skeptic concludes that the mixture doesn't work, not that taking it delays recovery or makes a cold worse. Showing that a supposed remedy actively obstructs recovery would be a different argument.
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