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Negative statements can often be confusing. One such example provided by McInerny on page 53 had me scratching my head and forced me to reread it a few times.
As McInerny notes, the word all is statements of universality. Both "All dogs have four legs" or "All water is wet" are universal statements, because of the word "all".
However, the two above examples are affirmative statements, while the first, "All dogs are not mongrels", is a negative one. Because this statement is negative, it changes the way the statement works. One trick I finally remembered from my LSAT studying helped a lot with understanding how negative statements work. When "not" or a similar term appears in a statement, it helps to move this word to the beginning rather than have it embedded in the middle of the sentence.
By doing this, you change "All dogs are not mongrels", which looks very much like a universal statement, to "Not all dogs are mongrels", which actually translates to "Some dogs (not all) are mongrels", a particular statement.
So my question is this, What other issues/confusion have you come across regarding negative statements, and how did you overcome them?
All dogs are not mongrels.
As McInerny notes, the word all is statements of universality. Both "All dogs have four legs" or "All water is wet" are universal statements, because of the word "all".
However, the two above examples are affirmative statements, while the first, "All dogs are not mongrels", is a negative one. Because this statement is negative, it changes the way the statement works. One trick I finally remembered from my LSAT studying helped a lot with understanding how negative statements work. When "not" or a similar term appears in a statement, it helps to move this word to the beginning rather than have it embedded in the middle of the sentence.
By doing this, you change "All dogs are not mongrels", which looks very much like a universal statement, to "Not all dogs are mongrels", which actually translates to "Some dogs (not all) are mongrels", a particular statement.
So my question is this, What other issues/confusion have you come across regarding negative statements, and how did you overcome them?
