The question contains some statements followed by some conclusions. Decide…

2024

The question contains some statements followed by some conclusions. Decide which of the given conclusions logically follow from the given statements, disregarding commonly known facts.

Statements

P: All good athletes want to win.

Q: All good athletes eat well.

Conclusions

I. All those who eat well are good athletes.

II. All those who want to win, eat well.

  1. A.

    Only I follows

  2. B.

    Only II follows

  3. C.

    Neither I nor II  follows

  4. D.

    Both I and II follow

Attempted by 55 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C

Concept

In categorical syllogisms, a universal statement of the form ‘All A are B’ only establishes that A is a subset of B. It never licenses the converse ‘All B are A’, and two separate statements of the form ‘All A are B’ and ‘All A are C’ do not by themselves establish any direct relationship between B and C.

Application

  • P: All good athletes want to win — good athletes ⊆ want-to-win.

  • Q: All good athletes eat well — good athletes ⊆ eat-well.

Conclusion I says everyone who eats well is a good athlete — that is the converse of Q (eat-well ⊆ good athletes), which P and Q never assert, so it does not follow.

Conclusion II says everyone who wants to win eats well — that would need a direct link between the want-to-win group and the eat-well group. Both groups are only known to contain the good athletes as a subset; nothing connects them to each other outside that subset, so this conclusion does not follow either.

Cross-check

A single counterexample rules out both: imagine a person who is not a good athlete, wants to win, but does not eat well. This person does not contradict P or Q (both statements are only about good athletes), yet directly falsifies conclusion II. Similarly, a person who eats well without being a good athlete falsifies conclusion I. So neither conclusion I nor II follows from the given statements.

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