

J on January 24, 2019

Question 3 - Question on S&N introducers...

Question 3 on the examples of the video is about the sociologists, climate, and migration. The 2 identifiers in the stimulus are "always" and "necessary". Why in sentence 2 does the identifier "always" not introduce the sufficient? Rather it is that Drastic shifts in climate change -> Migration. I guess I am confused because "always" introduces the sufficient. Is not migration the sufficient? M->DSCC?

3 Replies

Jacob on February 1, 2019

Hi @jskaggs,

Good question. â€œAlwaysâ€ in the second clause is introducing the sufficient, albeit with a confusing word order. That is, the â€œalwaysâ€ is not necessarily connected to what follows in the sentence, at least insofar as formal logic is concerned. What do I mean by that?

The clause in the passage is: Drastic shifts in climate always results in migrations.

But notice that this could also be rewritten as:

It is ALWAYS the case that drastic shifts in climate results in migrations.


Drastic shifts in climate results in migrations, ALWAYS.

Notice: it doesnâ€™t matter where in the sentence â€œalwaysâ€ is. Instead, we are interested in the logical relationship between drastic shifts in climate and migrations, and the fact that drastic shifts in climate â€œalwaysâ€ result in migrations. Therefore, wherever the always is, we know that as a formal matter what any of these 3 sentences is really saying is:

IF drastic shift in climate THEN migration.

Does that help explain the how the â€œalwaysâ€ is getting used here? If not, please let me know and Iâ€™ll try again!


J on February 5, 2019


Ravi on February 5, 2019

@jskaggs Happy you found Jacob's response helpful. Let us know if you have any additional questionsâ€”we're here to help!