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Philosophy 103: Introduction to Logic
Logic Assessment Pretest Question 9

9. What can most probably be concluded from the following statement?  The belongings in little Mary's room were strewn about in gay profusion.  a. Little Mary's room was brightly and carefully decorated.  b. Little Mary has many belongings and so is probably wealthy.  c. Little Mary likes to throw things-including all her belongings.  d. Little Mary has too many clothes.  e. Little Mary doesn't put things away. Purpose for the Question:  One objective of logic is to gain an appreciation for the complexity of language. If we translate the statement into emotively neutral language, a suitable paraphrase might be "Mary's room is untidy." I.e., if we state the fact-at-issue as a question in neutral language, "How would you describe Mary's room?." the answer would be that her belongings were out of place.		Phil 103 02 Archie
		Engl 373 04 Dumont-Poston
		Engl 101 22 Westcott

Answer Choices: 

a. The fact that her belongings were out of place does not imply her room was brightly, much less, carefully decorated.

b. The fact that her belongings were strewn about implies neither that she is probably wealthy nor that she has many belongings.

c. That her belonging are "strewn about" does not imply that Mary likes to throw things.

d.  The fact that her belongings are scattered does not imply anything about how many clothes Mary had.

e. Mary doesn't put things away is the best answer, although this statement is only probable and does not necessarily follow from the given statement. 

Evaluation:   The answers to this question are fairly consistent across the disciplines. If this type of question is retained, one might suppose logic students would reach the correct answer far more often in a post-test.

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