Critical Reasoning: Conclusion Weakening Questions

Pharmaceuticals production is a multi-billion dollar industry. Companies are constantly doing research, forming patents and creating new products that are intended to alleviate some type of pain or disease. This relentless production of pharmaceuticals, therefore, will result in an increase of health standards.

Which of the following, if true, undermines the author's conclusion?

Incorrect.

[[snippet]]

This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens the conclusion since the conclusion does not refer to pharmaceutical patents or their replication.

Incorrect.

[[snippet]]

This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens the conclusion since the people behind the process of manufacturing pharmaceuticals are not a factor that affects the issue of public health.

Incorrect.

[[snippet]]

This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens the conclusion as it relates only to the public health aspect of the conclusion, and ignores the link the author made to the pharmaceutical industry.

Incorrect.

[[snippet]]

This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens the conclusion as the fact more people use pharmaceuticals does not imply anything about their benefits to the consumers' health. This vast use of pharmaceuticals may be simply because they are more available than ever.

Very nicely done!

[[snippet]]

This answer choice attacks the author's assumption. The conclusion is a cause-and-effect relationship: more new drugs -> better health. This answer choice undermines the logic of this relationship by telling us that because drugs are only tested briefly, some of them can actually have a negative effect on patients.

Pharmaceutical patents protect products from being illegally replicated for twenty years.

The mass-production of pharmaceuticals is a process that draws upon professionals from a wide range of fields.

Techniques for diagnosis have greatly improved, increasing the chances of early illness identification, which dramatically improves the chances of treating most treatable illnesses.

Statistics show that due to the increase in diversity and applications of pharmaceutical products, more people today use such products than ever before.

The business aspect of producing pharmaceuticals drives companies to test products over a short period of time, sometimes missing undesired side-effects.