In a valid argument, if the premises are true, what can be said about the conclusion?

• A. The conclusion may be true or false
• B. The conclusion is unrelated to premises
• C. The premises guarantee the conclusion false
• D. The conclusion must be true

Answer: (D)

The idea being tested is validity: in a valid argument, the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises. That means if the premises are true, the conclusion cannot be false; it must be true as a matter of logical consequence. For example, if all humans are mortal and Socrates is a human, then Socrates is mortal. The conclusion follows from the premises, so with true premises the conclusion must be true. The other possibilities would undermine validity: the conclusion could be false or unrelated even when the premises are true, which isn’t possible in a valid structure.