Logical Reasoning

PT151 · S4 · Q23 If a piece of legislation

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If a piece of legislation is the result of negotiation and compromise between competing interest groups, it will not satisfy any of those groups.

Conclusion (So)

We can see that the recently enacted trade agreement represents a series of compromises among the various interest groups that are concerned with it.

Evidence (because)

All those groups are clearly unhappy with it, and if a piece of legislation is the result of negotiation and compromise between competing interest groups, it will not satisfy any of those groups.

Evaluate

The first word out of the gate is "If". What does "if" mean to an LSAT student? That's right, it almost always means Conditional Logic (the condition attached to "if" goes on the left of the arrow).

When we're doing Flaw and we see any Conditional Logic, what should we be thinking?

We should be on the lookout for the #1 famous flaw of them all, confusing Necessary vs. Sufficient.

This argument was identical to this one: If a person wins the Kentucky state lottery, they will be very wealthy. So, we can see that Bob apparently won the Kentucky state lottery, because he is clearly very wealthy.

Our conversational objection to this argument would be, .

Our conversational objection to this argument we just read would similarly be, .

As soon as we see the conditional logic statement offered in the Evidence, for example, X → Y

We listen for the two variations on the Necessary vs. Sufficient flaw (reasoning via an illegal negation or via an illegal reversal).

We'd expect to hear, "Bob is Y. Thus, Bob is X" or, .

The conditional we were given was,

legislation resulted all the groups will from compromise → be unsatisfied between interest groups (unhappy)

Does this argument say,

Or does it say, ?

It did the first one. It just tries to hide it with two moves: 1. They supplied the Conclusion (So) before they supplied the Evidence (Because). 2. They didn't use a verbatim word match. They're forcing us to see that "unhappy" and "not satisfied" are interchangeable here. They're also forcing us to see that "results from negotiation and compromise between groups" is interchangeable with "represents a series of compromises among the groups".

In order to see past their shenanigans, we need to be on top of knowing that when we see "If", we're getting conditional logic. And we need to know that when we see conditional logic on Flaw questions, the authors will usually use a conditional rule in some illegal backwards or negated fashion.

Goal

Look for the formal answer, saying this author scrambled a condition that is Sufficient to prove that everyone would be unhappy with a condition that is Required in order for everyone to be unhappy.

Or look for the conversational answer saying, .

23.

Which one of the following most accurately describes a logical flaw in the argument?

  1. It draws a conclusion that

    Wrong Flaw: not Circular

    This refers to the famous Circular reasoning flaw, which shows up a ton in Flaw answer choices and is almost never correct. The conclusion here is that the recently enacted trade agreement represents a series of compromises. Was either of the two premises saying that the new trade agreement is a results of compromises? No. The first premise (the 1st sentence) doesn't talk about this new trade agreement at all, and the second premise (the final claim) doesn't say anything about compromises, just that people are unhappy with the new agreement.

    9% picked this

  2. Correct

    It concludes that a condition

    Why this is right

    This describes the #1 famous flaw, Necessary vs. Sufficient, in which the argument presents a conditional relationship and then applies the rule in some illegal backwards or opposite fashion. The condition of "legislation resulting from compromise between competing groups" leads to the result of "all the competing groups are unhappy". By arguing in this style, Since .... We can conclude ... all these groups the recent agreement are unhappy with was the result of the recent agreement compromise ... the author is making it look like "the result of compromise" is a Necessary (right side) condition that necessarily follows from knowing that the competing groups are all unhappy with the new agreement.

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

    76% picked this

  3. It relies on understanding a

    Wrong Flaw: not Equivocation

    This refers to another of the top 10 famous flaws, Equivocation, in which the author uses the same term or concept but in two very different ways. Like Circular reasoning (and like Internal Contradiction), these Equivocation answers are almost always wrong. In order to ever pick them, we need to be able to find some term that is used twice, but each usage could be defined in very different ways. We don't have any such term here.

    4% picked this

  4. It takes for granted that

    Too Strong: no Not Assumed

    Because this starts with takes for granted / presumes / fails to establish, we can ask ourselves, "Did the argument need to assume this?" No, it's too harsh. This argument is only about this recent trade agreement. The author doesn't need to assume that no legislation ever could satisfy all competing groups. If we negate this assumption, we'd get "at least one piece of legislation can satisfy all competing interest groups". That negated assumption wouldn't weaken the argument; it wouldn't even be relevant to the argument since the recent trade agreement we're focused on is one that didn't satisfy all competing interest groups.

    6% picked this

  5. It bases a conclusion about

    Bad 2nd Half

    This argument does have a conclusion about a particular case (the recently enacted trade agreement), and it does use a general principle (the first sentence). But our problem with the argument isn't that the particular case isn't relevant to the general principle. It is. Our problem is just that the author is applying the principle in reverse.

    6% picked this

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