{"id":27140,"date":"2025-06-19T21:12:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T21:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=27140"},"modified":"2025-06-19T21:12:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T21:12:55","slug":"consider-the-following-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/consider-the-following-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"Consider the following argument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Consider the following argument: If people always betray you, it is not worth cultivating friendships. But people do not always betray you. Therefore, it is indeed worth cultivating friendships. It is an instance of: a. Affirming the consequent b. Affirming the antecedent c. Denying the antecedent d. Denying the consequent<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is:<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct answer is: <strong>d. Denying the consequent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s analyze the argument step-by-step:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Argument:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If people always betray you, then it is not worth cultivating friendships.<br>Symbolically:<br>If P, then Q<br>Where:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>P = People always betray you<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Q = It is not worth cultivating friendships<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>People do <strong>not<\/strong> always betray you.<br>Symbolically:<br>Not P<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Therefore, it is worth cultivating friendships.<br>Symbolically:<br>Therefore, Not Q<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Form of the argument:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The argument states:<br>If P \u2192 Q<br>Not P<br>Therefore, Not Q<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Validity Check:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is a classic logical form known as <strong>Denying the Antecedent<\/strong> if the conclusion was Q, but here the conclusion is Not Q after Not P, so we need to be careful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually, given the symbols:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>P = &#8220;People always betray you&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Q = &#8220;It is not worth cultivating friendships&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Given: If P then Q<br>Given: Not P (people do not always betray you)<br>Conclusion: Therefore, Not Q (it is worth cultivating friendships)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This matches the pattern:<br>If P then Q<br>Not P<br>Therefore, Not Q<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the <strong>fallacy of denying the antecedent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why is this a fallacy?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The statement &#8220;If P then Q&#8221; tells us that whenever P is true, Q must be true.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>However, if P is false (Not P), it does <strong>not<\/strong> guarantee that Q is false.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Q could be true or false independently when P is false.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>So, concluding Not Q from Not P is logically invalid.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">But the answer choices are:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>a. Affirming the consequent<br>b. Affirming the antecedent<br>c. Denying the antecedent<br>d. Denying the consequent<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which is it?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Affirming the antecedent<\/strong> (valid):<br>If P then Q<br>P<br>Therefore Q<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Affirming the consequent<\/strong> (fallacy):<br>If P then Q<br>Q<br>Therefore P<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Denying the antecedent<\/strong> (fallacy):<br>If P then Q<br>Not P<br>Therefore Not Q<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Denying the consequent<\/strong> (valid):<br>If P then Q<br>Not Q<br>Therefore Not P<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Our argument matches the <strong>Denying the antecedent<\/strong> form.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final conclusion:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The argument is an example of the <strong>fallacy of denying the antecedent<\/strong>, <strong>answer c<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Correction:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct answer is <strong>c. Denying the antecedent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The argument incorrectly assumes that because people do not always betray you (Not P), it must be worth cultivating friendships (Not Q). However, from the conditional &#8220;If P then Q,&#8221; the truth of Not P does not guarantee Not Q. This is a logical fallacy called <strong>denying the antecedent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consider the following argument: If people always betray you, it is not worth cultivating friendships. But people do not always betray you. Therefore, it is indeed worth cultivating friendships. It is an instance of: a. Affirming the consequent b. Affirming the antecedent c. Denying the antecedent d. Denying the consequent The correct answer and explanation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27141,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27140\/revisions\/27141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}