Q25 - The great medieval universities

[ericha3535]

Ok..
I spotted 2 fallacies with this argument:

1) confuses sufficient with necessary:

Admin -> ~Success
---
Therefore, Admin -> Success

This is an inverse fallacy.

2) The second fallacy I spotted was the false comparison fallacy.
You are technically comparing universities that were existed back in medieval era with those that are in present. You can't just compare those two. Medieval colleges and present colleges are drastically different...

So....

If you actually thought number 1 was the "main fallacy," B would be the answer:

~Accepted -> ~Computer
---
Therefore Accepted -> Computer

But if you actually thought 2 was the main fallacy, A would be the answer:
You can't compare the planes from 1903 to the planes with engines. They are too different...

Am I missing something? Or did second fallacy I spotted not happened in the argument?

[ohthatpatrick]

It's funny, I interpreted the flaw more in correlation --/--> causality terms, but I see how you can use the nec/suff logic as well.

There is definitely a dubious comparison in the original argument between medieval and modern universities.

However, there is also a dubious comparison in (B) between the novelist's stories and "your" stories.

Different writers may have vastly different levels of talent, and THAT may be the real deciding factor, not whether the writer uses a computer.

So since (B) addresses both of the flaws you discussed, whereas (A) only discusses one of them, (B) more closely parallels the original.

On a side note, I got rid of (A) because I thought it was a (roughly) valid argument.

If airplanes were flying before airplanes had jet engines, then it is absolutely true that jet engines are not required for airplanes to fly.

That's not flawed.

(We might question whether "the operation of airplanes" is equivalent to "ability to fly" ... hence, my saying it's only roughly valid).

Hope this helps.