Q10 - Every political philosopher of the early

[ebb5bdffdf]

Dont understand this question can someone explain? I chose B.

[Raiderblue17]

Sure can! This is best shown with links so let's break it down step by step.

Every AKA ALL Political Philosophers (PP) were influenced by Rosa Luxemburg (RL)

Diagrammed PP -----> RL

NO one (NONE) who were influened by Rosa Luxenberg (RL) advocated a totalitarian state (TS)

Diagrammed RL---> ~TS

So the entire chain is. ALL Political Philosphers (PP) were influenced by Rosa Luxenberg (RL) and NONE of those influenced by Rosa Luxenberg) advocated Totalitariansim.

Full Diagram is PP ---> RL----> ~T

Contrapositive: T---- ~RL ----- ~PP

If you were an advocate of totalitarianism you were not influenced by Rosa Luxenberg and you were not a Political Philosopher.

These are the ONLY possible MUST BE TRUES, the rest are COULD BE TRUES. But you must diagram and then do the contrapositive to find the only 2 possible answers.

So what we know is that all Political Philosophers were not advocates of totalitarianism.

AND

If you were an advocate of totalitarianism you were not influenced by Rosa Luxenberg and you were not a Political Philosopher.

SO answer choice A is correct.


Sorry for the misspellings... Cheers

[giladedelman]

Thanks for the question and answer!

I would point out that you shouldn't eliminate the "who was either a socialist or a communist" part from your diagramming. If answer (A) left out the word "socialist," it would be incorrect.

But otherwise, your analysis is good: we know that all socialist/communist political philosophers in the early 20th century were influenced by Rosa Luxembourg, and no one influenced by her advocated a totalitarian state, so none of those philosophers could have advocated such a thing. That's why (A) is correct.

(B) is incorrect because there could be non-socialist, non-communist philosophers who were not influenced by Luxembourg but were still anti-totalitarian.

(C) is incorrect because they could have been influenced by others, too.

(D) is out because she could have influenced other groups besides socialists and communists.

(E) is out basically in the same way as (B).

[lhermary]

I have a problem with this question.

It says:

Every political philosopher of the early twentieth century who was either a socialist or a communist was influenced by rosa luxemburg.

(A) says : that no early-twentieth century political philosophers advocated a totalitarian state.

It seems that (A) 'may be true' but not 'must be true' because there could be some early twentieth century political philosophers who were not socialist or communists that believed in a totalitarian state.

Where am I going wrong?

[sumukh09]

A says "No early-twentieth-century socialist political philosopher advocated a totalitarian state"

We know:

1. Political Philosopher (socialist or communist) ---> Influenced by Rosa Luxemburg ---> ~Advocated a totalitarian regime

So A must be true