Statements: All the windows are doors. No door is a wall. Conclusions: Some…
2023
Statements:
All the windows are doors.
No door is a wall.
Conclusions:
Some windows are walls.
No wall is a door.
- A.
Only (1) conclusion follows
- B.
Only (2) conclusion follows
- C.
Either (1) or (2) follows
- D.
Neither (1) nor (2) follows
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept:
In a syllogism, a universal affirmative statement ('All A is B') places A entirely inside B, and a universal negative statement ('No B is C') means B and C share no members at all. Two immediate-inference rules follow from this: (i) if A is wholly inside B and B has zero overlap with C, then A also has zero overlap with C; and (ii) a universal negative statement always converts validly to its own converse - 'No B is C' implies 'No C is B'.
Application:
Statement 1 places every window inside the set of doors (windows are a subset of doors).
Statement 2 says doors and walls share no members (doors and walls do not overlap).
Since windows are wholly inside doors, and doors have zero overlap with walls, windows also have zero overlap with walls - so 'no window is a wall' holds, which directly rules out Conclusion 1 ('some windows are walls').
Statement 2, 'No door is a wall', is a universal negative, so by the conversion rule it validly gives 'No wall is a door' - exactly Conclusion 2 - on its own, independent of statement 1.
Cross-check:
Draw the sets as circles: draw the 'doors' circle, put the smaller 'windows' circle fully inside it (from statement 1), then draw the 'walls' circle completely separate from the 'doors' circle (from statement 2). In this diagram the 'windows' circle and the 'walls' circle never touch, confirming Conclusion 1 is false, while swapping the subject and predicate of statement 2 ('No door is a wall' to 'No wall is a door') is a standard valid conversion for any universal negative statement, confirming Conclusion 2 independently.
Result:
Only Conclusion 2 follows.