Q9 - Until he was dismissed amid great controversy

[samuelfbaron]

Could someone help me map this one out?

[sumukh09]

This is a necessary assumption question so our focus will be on the core of the argument ie) premises/conclusion. We're looking for something that must be true within the core of the argument; in order for the author to draw her conclusion, there's a necessary assumption she must have made.


1)dismissal justified --> Incompetent or Disloyal 2)Hastings was shown to never be incompetent ----> Hastings must have been disloyal

In order to draw the conclusion that Hastings must have been disloyal, we would first need to know whether the dismissal was in fact justified, otherwise there's no way we can conclude that he was disloyal.

If his dismissal was justified, then he can either be incompetent and not disloyal or not disloyal and incompetent.

Since we're told that he was not incompetent, then he must have been disloyal. But first we need to assume that the dismissal was justified - and that's what answer choice A gives us.

[samuelfbaron]

I completely got this one all mixed up.

Could you perhaps help explain why this is necessary assumption instead of sufficient?

Is it because of the 'or' clause within it?

[sumukh09]

It's asking for something the argument depends on so we know it's asking for a necessary assumption. Anytime a question stem asks for an assumption the argument depends or relies on, it is a necessary assumption question.

[rinagoldfield]

Great conversation!

Sumokh, your breakdown of the argument core is on point:

1. If his dismissal was justified, then Hastings was incompetent or disloyal.
2. Hastings wasn’t incompetent

-->

Hastings was disloyal.

What’s wrong here? Well, Hastings must have been incompetent or disloyal IF his dismissal was justified. But what if his dismissal wasn’t justified? Then we can’t conclude anything about his loyalty.

(analogy:
If Jane loves someone, then he is smart or funny.
Mark isn’t smart.
Therefore Mark is funny.
This argument is flawed like the one above. What if Jane doesn’t love Mark? What if the dismissal wasn’t justified?)

This is a necessary assumption question. As Sumokh said above, necessary assumption questions have words like "depends" or "requires" in the question stem.

(B) is out of scope; Hastings’ rank is never discussed.
(C) is too broad. The argument concerns Hastings’ dismissal, not dismissals in general. This answer choice also reverses the logic of the premise.
(D) is also too broad.
(E) again, is too broad, and reverses the premise’s logic.