hoonoki
I sent this e-mail to my professor about a question on the homework our class went over with the assistant prof:
25. Ken wondered "Who told Tim the answer to the homework question?" Ken was assuming that
a. Tim answered the question for himself.
b. Tim did the homework.
c. Tim did not answer the question for himself.
We were told that although c was acceptable, b was the better answer. On the contrary, as far as I can see, b is not even a possible conclusion. Simply because Ken has implied that Tim knows the answer to the homework question does not mean that he implied that Tim actually did the homework. Maybe Tim merely knows the answer and told it to Ken. However, by asking who told Tim the answer, he is suggesting that Tim did not figure it out for himself.
Please let me know what I'm missing here!
His reply:
~
good q. this one is disputable, and a little tricky.
think of it like this: in a) and b), he answered (or not) the question, presupposing that he did the hw (legitmately or not), so in either case Tim did the hw. thus the common denominator is b, which is why it is the best answer. the key is "did" which doesn't necessarily imply Tim did it himself, but might only mean he just turned in the hw.
hope that helps.
~
Now I want a third or sixth opinion, because for me that doesn't answer my argument and still doesn't support the logic of b, because the question never says to presuppose that he did the homework, nor does anything in the premise state or definitely imply it. Yes, if you presuppose that than b is correct. But only if you have a sound basis for the presupposition, which we don't.
In reality, I now think that none of the answers are correct; as to c, Tim might have said annoyedly, "Someone came in and told me the answer to the homework question as if I hadn't figured it out for myself." "Who?" "Oh, it's not important." Then Ken could pose the question to another person/other people.
Please let me know what you think about this.
25. Ken wondered "Who told Tim the answer to the homework question?" Ken was assuming that
a. Tim answered the question for himself.
b. Tim did the homework.
c. Tim did not answer the question for himself.
We were told that although c was acceptable, b was the better answer. On the contrary, as far as I can see, b is not even a possible conclusion. Simply because Ken has implied that Tim knows the answer to the homework question does not mean that he implied that Tim actually did the homework. Maybe Tim merely knows the answer and told it to Ken. However, by asking who told Tim the answer, he is suggesting that Tim did not figure it out for himself.
Please let me know what I'm missing here!
His reply:
~
good q. this one is disputable, and a little tricky.
think of it like this: in a) and b), he answered (or not) the question, presupposing that he did the hw (legitmately or not), so in either case Tim did the hw. thus the common denominator is b, which is why it is the best answer. the key is "did" which doesn't necessarily imply Tim did it himself, but might only mean he just turned in the hw.
hope that helps.
~
Now I want a third or sixth opinion, because for me that doesn't answer my argument and still doesn't support the logic of b, because the question never says to presuppose that he did the homework, nor does anything in the premise state or definitely imply it. Yes, if you presuppose that than b is correct. But only if you have a sound basis for the presupposition, which we don't.
In reality, I now think that none of the answers are correct; as to c, Tim might have said annoyedly, "Someone came in and told me the answer to the homework question as if I hadn't figured it out for myself." "Who?" "Oh, it's not important." Then Ken could pose the question to another person/other people.
Please let me know what you think about this.
