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Verbal·Expression of Ideas·Rhetorical Synthesis

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While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• It is generally accepted that all bats use echolocation to navigate.
• The statement “all bats use echolocation to navigate” is falsifiable.
• A falsifiable statement can theoretically be proved false by observation.
• “All bats use echolocation to navigate” could be falsified by observing a single bat that didn’t use echolocation.
• The statement “some bats use echolocation to navigate” is not falsifiable.
• Falsifying it would require observing every bat in the universe, which is not possible.

The student wants to contrast the falsifiability of two statements about bats. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A

One could theoretically observe a single bat that didn’t use echolocation; however, one could not falsify the statement “some bats use echolocation to navigate.”

B

The statement “some bats use echolocation to navigate” could be falsified by observing every bat in the universe, but it is not possible to falsify the statement “all bats use echolocation to navigate.”

C

The statement “all bats use echolocation to navigate” could be proved false by observing a single bat that didn’t use echolocation, whereas falsifying “some bats use echolocation to navigate” would require observing every bat in the universe, which is not possible.

D

The statement “all bats use echolocation to navigate” is not falsifiable because it would require observing every bat, whereas the statement “some bats use echolocation to navigate” can be falsified by observing a single bat that does not use echolocation.