Logical Reasoning

PT138 · S2 · Q12 Journalist: A book claiming

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Journalist: A book claiming that a new drug has dangerous side effects has recently been criticized by a prominent physician.

Conclusion

The physician's critique is not legitimate grounds for rejecting what the book said about the new drug's side effects.

(translation: we shouldn't reject the warnings this book made about the new drug's side effects, just because of this physician's critique)

Intermediate Conclusion

The physician probably has personal reasons to deny that the drug is dangerous.

Evidence

The physician is employed by the manufacturer of the new pill.

Evaluate

One of the ten famous flaws is Ad Hominem, where an author dismisses a point of view because the Source of the ideas is someone who has a biased interest, or who has conflicting past behavior.

If we're doing a Flaw question and the author seems to be doing a Rebuttal, then we're usually looking at one of these two flaws: Ad Hominem Unproven vs. Proven False

We could argue with the first move, from Premise to Intermediate Conclusion, that working for a drug company automatically makes you likely to have personal reasons to protect the company's reputation when it comes to its drugs having dangerous side effects.

But even if we grant that the physician does have some personal reasons for wanting the drug company to do financially well, that doesn't allow us to invalidate what the physician has said without evaluating the merits of her claims.

Sometimes what we're saying is both true and serves our vested interests. So we can complain that the author has not told us what the physician's criticisms are and why they are unwarranted.

Goal

Look for an answer that sounds like,

12.

The reasoning in the journalist's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which one of the following grounds?

  1. It fails to address adequately

    Not an Objection

    The conclusion is only saying "this physician's critique is not a reason to reject this book's claim about side effects." If the physician critiqued stuff unrelated to side effects, then those parts of the critique would also not be a reason to reject this book's claim about side effects. If those parts aren't even about the drug's side effects, then how could they be a reason to reject a book's claim about the drug's side effects?

    1% picked this

  2. It takes for granted that

    Trap

    Not Being Assumed Too Strong: anyone even remotely A physician at a drug company is a fairly important employee, one would think. This employee might even be high enough to own stock options in the drug company, and thus have motive to hide the new drug's bad side effects. But a mailman who brings the drug company its mail every day is someone "even remotely associated with" the drug company, and the author isn't necessarily assuming someone as distantly affiliated as the mailman would also have "personal reasons" to deny bad press for the drug company.

    14% picked this

  3. It overlooks the possibility that

    Not as Good an Objection

    If the book's author was also biased in favor of its point of view (as the author accuses the physician of being), that does feel like it would destabilize the argument. But this is definitely not the issue that LSAC expects us to catch in the paragraph. The fact that the author is invalidating the physician's critique just because of probable vested interest is the headline.

    2% picked this

  4. Correct

    It fails to address adequately

    Why this is right

    This describes the underlying reason that Ad Hominem is a flaw. - Just because a person has a biased interest is X being true, doesn't mean X isn't true. It might nonetheless be a true statement. or - Just because a person has said or done something in the past that goes against X, doesn't mean we shouldn't listen to them now when they're telling us X is true. This answer is just saying that our author fails to consider that even if the physician has personal reasons for wanting to deny the book's claims about the drug, it's still possible that the physician is correct and the book is wrong.

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

    81% picked this

  5. It overlooks the possibility that

    Even If-Conclusion

    It's always wrong to say "Even if the Conclusion is true, ..." If you were defending someone on murder charges and were like, "Your Honor, even if my client committed murder, he didn't rob any banks", that would not work well. Our whole job is to resist drawing the conclusion that the author drew. Saying "even if she's right about her conclusion" means you've instantly conceded victory to her argument.

    2% picked this

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