Education critics' contention that the use of calculators in mathemati

Question

Education critics' contention that the use of calculators in mathematics classes will undermine students' knowledge of the rationale underlying calculational procedures is clearly false. Every new information-handling technology has produced virtually the same accusation. Some Greek philosophers, for example, believed that the advent of written language would erode people’s capacity to remember information and speak extemporaneously.

The reasoning in the argument above is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

The reasoning in the argument above is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

(A) presents only evidence whose relevancy to the issue raised by the opponents has not been established

(B) draws a conclusion based on an ambiguous notion of knowledge

(C) takes for granted that the advantages offered by new information-handling technologies always outweigh the disadvantages

(D) takes a condition that suffices to prove its conclusion to be a condition necessary for the truth of that conclusion

(E) concludes that a hypothesis is false simply because it contradicts other beliefs held by the advocates of that hypothesis

MartyMurray · Answer

Education critics' contention that the use of calculators in mathematics classes will undermine students' knowledge of the rationale underlying calculational procedures is clearly false. Every new information-handling technology has produced virtually the same accusation. Some Greek philosophers, for example, believed that the advent of written language would erode people’s capacity to remember information and speak extemporaneously.

The reasoning in the argument above is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

The reasoning in the argument above is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

This is a Logical Flaw question. So, the correct answer will accurately describe a way in which the argument is flawed.

Accordingly, we can set ourselves up to answer this question correctly by noting the conclusion, the support for the conclusion, and how reasoning of the argument works.

Conclusion:

Education critics' contention that the use of calculators in mathematics classes will undermine students' knowledge of the rationale underlying calculational procedures is clearly false.

Support:

Every new information-handling technology has produced virtually the same accusation.

We see that the reasoning is that, since similar accusations have been made about every new information-handling technology, this contention must be false.

One thing we may notice about the argument is that the fact that similar accusations have been made before doesn't mean that this contention or any of the previous accusations are false. After all, repeating something doesn't make it false.

(A) presents only evidence whose relevancy to the issue raised by the opponents has not been established

This choice is tricky because the evidence presented, past accusations about information-handling technology, seems relevant to the issue raised by the opponents, which involves a contention similar to the past accusations. So, we might be tempted to quickly eliminate this choice.

At the same time, since none of the other answer choices work at all, this choice is worth a closer look, and here's another way we could interpret this choice.

We could interpret this choice as saying that the argument is flawed because the evidence presented doesn't make a clear difference in the case for the conclusion. Read that way, this choice works.

After all, the fact that people have made similar accusations in the past isn't really relevant to the validity of the contention the conclusion is about.

Sure, people have said similar things. OK, who cares? Right? The fact that people have said similar things in the past doesn't mean anything about whether the current contention is true or false. It means only that it's not unusual.

So, we can say that the problem with the argument is that it presents evidence that hasn't been shown to be relevant to the issue discussed, which is basically what this choice says.

Keep.

(B) draws a conclusion based on an ambiguous notion of knowledge

The conclusion is not based on the definition of knowledge. It's based the fact that certain types of accusations have been repeated multiple times.

So, what this choice describes is not something the argument does.

Eliminate.

(C) takes for granted that the advantages offered by new information-handling technologies always outweigh the disadvantages

The point of the argument is not "the advantages ... outweigh the disadvantages."

Rather, the point is basically that the contention that there is a certain disadvantage is false.

So, what this choice describes does not match what the argument does.

Eliminate.

(D) takes a condition that suffices to prove its conclusion to be a condition necessary for the truth of that conclusion

The argument doesn't suggest that anything sufficient to prove its conclusion is "necessary for the truth of it's conclusion."

In other words, the point of the argument is not that something must be true for its conclusion to be true.

It just presents some evidence and states a conclusion based on that evidence.

Eliminate.

(E) concludes that a hypothesis is false simply because it contradicts other beliefs held by the advocates of that hypothesis

What choice describes is in a way opposite to what the argument does.

The point of the argument is that the contention is false because it's similar to past contentions, not because it "contradicts" anything.

Eliminate.

Correct answer:   A

guddo · Answer

Education critics' contention that the use of calculators in mathematics classes will undermine students' knowledge of the rationale underlying calculational procedures is clearly false. Every new information-handling technology has produced virtually the same accusation. Some Greek philosophers, for example, believed that the advent of written language would erode people’s capacity to remember information and speak extemporaneously. 
 
The reasoning in the argument above is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

The argument rejects the criticism of calculators mainly because similar worries have been raised about other information-handling technologies in the past. But showing that similar accusations have been made before does not show that this particular accusation is false.  The flaw is weak relevance : the example about written language has not been shown to prove anything about  calculators and mathematical understanding .

(A) presents only evidence whose relevancy to the issue raised by the opponents has not been established

Correct. The argument gives an example of a past concern about written language, but it does not show that this example is relevant to whether calculators undermine students’ understanding of calculation procedures.

(B) draws a conclusion based on an ambiguous notion of knowledge

Wrong. The flaw is not ambiguity in the word “knowledge.” The flaw is that the evidence does not clearly address the calculator issue.

(C) takes for granted that the advantages offered by new information-handling technologies always outweigh the disadvantages

Wrong. The argument does not compare advantages and disadvantages. It simply dismisses the critics’ concern.

(D) takes a condition that suffices to prove its conclusion to be a condition necessary for the truth of that conclusion

Wrong. This is not a necessary versus sufficient condition flaw.

(E) concludes that a hypothesis is false simply because it contradicts other beliefs held by the advocates of that hypothesis

Wrong. The argument does not discuss contradictions in the critics’ own beliefs.

Answer: (A)

gullyboy09 · Answer

Hi  MartyMurray , how I interpreted option A is that argument is about "knowledge of the rationale", whereas example (evidence?) given is of "capacity to remember", and both are quite different thing. Is it a right way to chose A?

Education critics' contention that the use of calculators in mathematics classes will undermine students' knowledge of the rationale underlying calculational procedures is clearly false. Every new information-handling technology has produced virtually the same accusation. Some Greek philosophers, for example, believed that the advent of written language would erode people’s capacity to remember information and speak extemporaneously.

The reasoning in the argument above is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

The reasoning in the argument above is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

(A) presents only evidence whose relevancy to the issue raised by the opponents has not been established

yc168 · Answer

OE for reference:

Overview:  
The argument in the passage rejects the contention that the use of calculators in mathematics classes will undermine students' knowledge of the rationale underlying calculational procedures. To support this conclusion, it is claimed that every new information-handling technology has produced virtually the same accusation. An example is given: some Greek philosophers believed that written language would undermine people's ability to remember information and to speak extemporaneously. You are asked to identify the grounds on which this argument is most vulnerable to criticism.

The Correct Answer:

A  The only support offered for the argument's conclusion that calculators will not undermine knowledge of underlying mathematical rationales is that people have in the past believed similar things about other new information-handling technologies (and those beliefs have presumably turned out to be false). However, since the argument does not establish that those past information-handling technologies are similar in their impact to the effect of introducing calculators in mathematics classes, the argument does not establish the relevance of the evidence it presents to the issue it discusses.

The Incorrect Answer Choices:

B  The argument suggests that every new information-handling technology in the past was accused of undermining a form of knowledge acquired by people who handled that information before the technology was introduced. The notion of knowledge required by the argument is thus a broad one that potentially includes diverse types of
knowledge. There is no reason to think that this notion of knowledge is ambiguous; it is merely broad.

C  The argument does not discuss the balance of advantages and disadvantages of any information-handling technologies that it discusses. The discussion is limited to whether using such technologies will undermine people's knowledge or abilities.

D  If the argument takes anything as sufficient to prove its conclusion, it is the analogy with previous criticisms of information-handling technology. But it is not at all clear that this analogy is actually sufficient for this purpose. Moreover, the argument never considers whether such an analogy might be necessary to support that conclusion. So the argument is not vulnerable to criticism on the grounds described in (D).

E  The only hypothesis that the argument concludes to be false is the hypothesis that the use of calculators will undermine students' knowledge of mathematical rationales. But the argument never discusses any other beliefs held by the education critics who advocate that hypothesis. So it does not infer that the hypothesis is false simply because it contradicts other beliefs held by advocates of that hypothesis.

Education critics' contention that the use of calculators in mathemati

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Education critics' contention that the use of calculators in mathemati

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards