Logical Reasoning

PT123 · S2 · Q20 Gamba: Muñoz claims that the Southwest

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Gamba: Muñoz claims that the Southwest Hopeville Neighbors Association overwhelmingly opposes the new water system, citing this as evidence of citywide opposition.

Implied Rebuttal Conclusion

We should not take the Association's opposition to the new water system as evidence of citywide opposition to the new water system.

Conclusion (should = opinion)

One should not assume that the few opposing votes from the Association represent the view of the majority of Hopeville’s residents.

Evidence (furthermore = evidence)

Only 25 of 350 members voted, with 10 in favor of the system.

The 15 opposing votes represent far less than 1 percent of Hopeville’s population.

Evaluate

The argument is set up to rebut a reasoning move that Muñoz is making. The author is rebutting this reasoning move by digging into the actual data (only 25 votes, with a 10 vs. 15 split) and then putting that data into perspective (less than 1% of the city's population).

In familiar LSAT terms, we could say our author is saying,

Goal

Let's find any answer that descriptively matches the argument, but it will likely deal with language about digging into Muñoz's evidence to expose how small the sample size is.

20.

Of the following, which one most accurately describes Gamba's strategy of argumentation?

  1. questioning a conclusion based on

    Bad Evidence Match

    The author is questioning Muñoz's conclusion, which is based on the results of a vote, but the evidence never talks about the idea that people with certain views are more likely to vote. This would be a different Sampling issue (a self-selecting sample), but the argument is concerned with the Sample merely being too small.

    2% picked this

  2. questioning a claim supported by

    Bad Evidence Match

    The author is questioning Muñoz's claim, which is supported by statistical data, but the evidence never talks about the idea that statistics can be manipulated to support whatever view you want to support.

    4% picked this

  3. attempting to refute an argument

    Bad Description: contrary to what's claimed

    This is somewhat tempting since our author is trying to show that Muñoz's conclusion about citywide opposition is not sufficiently supported by this piddly little Association vote. However, "contrary to what has been claimed", doesn't match up with anything. According to this answer, Muñoz claimed that the truth of his premise guarantees the truth of his conclusion. We only know that he cited the Association's vote as evidence for his claim, not that he cited it as proof of his claim.

    6% picked this

  4. criticizing a view on the

    Bad Evidence Match

    This misrepresents the argument's view about the votes opposing the new water system. It's not the votes are impossible to disconfirm, but rather that there are too few of them to assume that they are representative of the view of the majority of Hopeville's residents.

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    attempting to cast doubt on

    Why this is right

    This correctly describes the argument's conclusion (Munoz did not prove overwhelming opposition to the water system) as well as the evidence used to support it (15 votes opposing the new water system is too few to be sure that it represents the majority opinion).

    Skill tested: Method · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    87% picked this

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