If a society encourages freedom of thought and expression, then, durin

IMO E - but the question took me 10 mins.
What should we do in the test if this kind of question appear ? Guess and progress or spend 5/6 mins to answer it correctly. What are your thoungs guys ?

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This is parallel reasoning question.

ANALYZE THE STIMULUS:

The form of this question is:
If A occurs --> B occurs
Conclusion: If B occurs ==> A must occurs. (the reverse relationship is true).

This is wrong conclusion, our task is to find option that does NOT follow the above wrong reasoning.
Please note: it does not mean we find a correct reasoning.

ANALYZE EACH ANSWER:

(A) if air travel is to be made safer ==> Airfares have to rise [ X --> Y ]
Conclusion: since airfares were just raised ==> air travel will become safer. [Y happens --> X must happen]
==> Same error as in the argument. Thus, A is wrong.

(B) when police departments increase their efficiency ==> crime rates go down[X --> Y].
Conclusion: because crime rates are down in Hillside, the Hillside police department has improved its efficiency [ Y happens --> X must happen]
==> Same error as in the argument. Thus, B is wrong.

(C) People who are really interested in the preservation of wildlife ==> do not go hunting for big game; [X --> Y]
Conclusion: since Gerda has never gone hunting for big game and intends never to do so ==> Gerda is really interested in the preservation of wildlife. [Y happens --> X must happen]
==> Same error as in the argument. Thus, C is wrong.

(D) If the contents of a bottle are safe to drink ==> the bottle will not be marked “poison, [X --> Y]
Conclusion: the bottle is not marked “poison,” ==> its contents will be safe to drink. [Y happens --> X must happen]
==> Same error as in the argument. Thus, D is wrong.

(E) the opinion of each of its citizens must have a meaningful effect on government ==> for a country to be democratic [X --> Y]
Conclusion: none of these countries does each citizen’s opinion have such an effect ==> None of the so-called Western democracies is really democratic, because [ NOT X --> NOT Y]
==> Clearly, E does NOT follow the same error as in the argument. Thus, E is correct.

Hope it helps

If a society encourages freedom of thought and expression, then, during the time when it does so, creativity will flourish in that society. In the United States creativity flourished during the eighteenth century. It is clear, therefore, that freedom of thought was encouraged in the United States during the eighteenth century.

An error of reasoning of the same kind as one contained in the passage is present in each of the following arguments EXCEPT:

(A) According to the airline industry, airfares have to rise if air travel is to be made safer; since airfares were just raised, we can rest assured that air travel will therefore become safer. - WRONG. Jump is made.

(B) We can conclude that the Hillside police department has improved its efficiency, because crime rates are down in Hillside, and it is an established fact that crime rates go down when police departments increase their efficiency. - WRONG. Jumps again to conclude.

(C) People who are really interested in the preservation of wildlife obviously do not go hunting for big game; since Gerda has never gone hunting for big game and intends never to do so, it is clear that she is really interested in the preservation of wildlife. - WRONG. Similar in approach.

(D) If the contents of a bottle are safe to drink, the bottle will not be marked “poison,” so, since the bottle is not marked “poison,” its contents will be safe to drink. - WRONG. Same.

(E) None of the so-called Western democracies is really democratic, because, for a country to be democratic, the opinion of each of its citizens must have a meaningful effect on government, and in none of these countries does each citizen’s opinion have such an effect. - CORRECT. No error in reasoning.

Reading the question stem one must understand that what could be the right answer be like. It can be such that
1. It has an error of reasoning but not like as presented in the passage. Most difficult one.
2. It has a exact opposite reasoning. Tricky difficult.
3. It has no error at all i.e. it has a logical reasoning. Less difficult
4. It is plain neutral. May confuse a little but easy relatively.

Above is in the decreasing order of difficulty as i see.
In this passage the line of reasoning makes error in assuming what is believed to have been believed in 18th century. Another error could be that only one possibility is there for such a result i.e. encouragement of freedom of thought and expression leads to flourishing creativity, however, this can be given a pass depending on the choice available. Here the conclusion makes a jump if the line of reasoning is difficult to identify(though its not). What is difficult to identify is identifying similarity of error of line of reasoning.

Answer E.