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Enviromental problems (Don't agree with the OA)

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Enviromental problems (Don't agree with the OA)

by metallicafan » Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:52 am
The solution to any environmental problem that is not the result of government mismanagement can only lie in major changes in consumer habits. But major changes in consumer habits will occur only if such changes are economically enticing. As a result, few serious ecological problems will be solved unless the solutions are made economically enticing.

The conclusion drawn in the argument above follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?

(A) Few serious ecological problems are the result of government mismanagement.
(B) No environmental problems that stem from government mismanagement have solutions
that are economically feasible.
(C) Major changes in consumer habits can be made economically enticing.
(D) Most environmental problems that are not the result of government mismanagement are major
ecological problems.
(E) Few serious ecological problems can be solved by major changes in consumer habits.

I don't agree with the OA, which is _A_. The argument doesn't deny that problems caused by government mismanagement can be solved by economically enticing solutions. So, when the conclusion says that "few serious ecological problems will be solved unless the solutions are made economically enticing", we cannot assume that most serious enviromental problems are caused only by consumer habits. Therefore, we cannot assume that "few serious ecological problems are the result of government mismanagement" (Choice A).

What do you think?

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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Apr 06, 2012 2:34 pm
Good question - and you're just about entirely correct, which is what makes these "removes the flaw" / "assumption" types of questions so difficult.

If you first break down the question stem, it's saying that the (existing) conclusion (already) drawn in the argument needs one of answer choices to strengthen it.

It's convoluted wording, but it's an Assumption question. And with most difficult Assumption questions, the correct answer doesn't so much "strengthen" the conclusion as it removes a serious flaw in the conclusion. Here, if you take the argument as:

Premise: If the environmental problem isn't a government problem, it must be solved via consumer habits

Premise: Consumer habit changes will only occur if they're economically enticing.

Conclusion: Few serious environmental problems will be solved unless the solutions are economically enticing.


Well, what's the gap there? "Economically enticing" only relates to "consumer habits" and "consumer habits" are only necessary if it isn't a government problem.

What would weaken this argument? If most serious environmental problems were government problems, then the consumer habits wouldn't be necessary.

The right answer removes that flaw - by saying that "few serious ecological problems are government problems", it pre-empts the weakness that we found in the argument. It shows that most problems are the type that require a change in consumer behavior.

________________________________________________

Now, is the argument airtight even with A? No - like you said, we don't know how government-based problems are to be solved. But we do know that this argument is structured essentially like:

If the problem is not A, then B must happen.
B requires C.
So in order to solve the problem, we must have C.

If you strip down the logic to these variables, in order for the conclusion to hold true we need to either know:

This problem is A.
or
This problem is D, and D requires B, too.

Somewhere there's a gap - we only know the conclusion to be true if consumer habits must be changed. The most direct path to that conclusion is to show that most problems are of the type that we already know require consumer habit changes. And while choice (A) isn't the only way to do it, it's the only answer choice that does so.
Brian Galvin
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Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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