Q5 - Many fictional works have characters who are

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
Necessary Assumption

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: The plots of many fictional works demonstrate that supposedly precognitive characters are not actually precognitive. Premises: Precognitive means able to accurately perceive future events. Perception of future events is only accurate if the event comes to pass. In many fictional works, some of the events supposedly precognitive characters perceive do not come to pass.

Answer Anticipation:
The premises tell us that the characters in these works are not always successful in their predictions. Since the conclusion is that these characters are not precognitive after all, the argument seems to be assuming that if you're ever wrong, you're not precognitive. Predict a Bridge Assumption that bridges this gap.

Correct answer:
A

Answer choice analysis:
(A) A match for our prephrase. To confirm, we can use the negation technique. If a character can be precognitive even if some of their predictions of the future are inaccurate, this argument falls apart, confirming that this answer is a winner. Note the strong degree words in this answer: "only if all." While this is uncharacteristic of correct Necessary Assumption answers more generally, it is not unheard of. The negation test can help assuage fears of the strong degree because the ability to be precognitive with even one botched prediction would totally destroy the argument.

(B) Does this need to be true in order for our argument to work? No way!

(C) No again! The premises tell us that in many fictional works, the events predicted don't come to pass. It is those works about which we are drawing the conclusion, so the works described in this answer in which you don't know whether the prediction came to pass are out of scope.

(D) All we're concerned with is whether characters are precognitive. The extent to which their precognitive abilities are central to the plot is out of scope.

(E) We're drawing our conclusion about specific works of fiction: those in which the predictions are sometimes inaccurate. To do this, we don't need to assume that no work of fiction has ever had a truly precognitive character. That's overkill, and the negation test proves it. If one work of fiction did have a truly precognitive character, so what? It doesn't blow up this argument about a particular subset of works of fiction, so it can't be a correct answer.

Takeaway/Pattern:
If a Necessary Assumption question has a clear gap in reasoning, predict a Bridge Assumption to bridge the gap. And while it's not common for a correct answer in this question type to have a strong degree, it's not impossible. Use the negation technique to confirm any answer you're unsure of, and if the answer you're negating is a statement of totality (all, none, every, any, always, never, etc.), negate it by showing a single nonconforming case. If that's enough to destroy the argument, then the answer is correct!

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