Flawed ReasoningDiff: Medium

Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: The author claims that if you understand someone fully, you'll forgive them fully. Since we can't fully understand ourselves, the author concludes we can never fully forgive ourselves.

Conclusion: It is impossible for a person to achieve complete self-forgiveness.

Reasoning: Complete understanding of a person is a sufficient condition for complete forgiveness, and complete self-understanding is an impossible goal.

Analysis: This is a classic formal logic error known as a Mistaken Negation. The premise establishes that complete understanding is a sufficient condition for forgiveness (Understanding -> Forgiveness). The author then concludes that because the sufficient condition is absent (No Understanding), the result must also be absent (No Forgiveness). However, there could be other ways to achieve forgiveness that don't require complete understanding. Look for an answer choice that identifies this confusion between sufficient and necessary conditions.

Passage Stimulus

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15.

A flaw in the reasoning in the argument above is that this argument

Correct Answer
A
A pinpoints the error: the argument treats the failure to meet a condition that guarantees an outcome (complete understanding) as if meeting that condition is the only way to achieve the outcome (complete forgiveness). That’s denying the antecedent: from U → F and ~~U~~, it invalidly infers ~~F~~.
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