Q13 - Some people think that

[a3friedm]

Premises
1) (D → QR) → (EP → R)
2) JP → D
3) SHOR → ~EP

Question Stimulus: Can't Be True (Must Be False)

Correct Answer Choice:
(E) Some scrupulously honest politicians are effective (contradicts premise 3)

Incorrect Answer Choices:
(A) Some people think all politicians are rotten
Could be true, we are only given that some people think they're are a few rotten ones.

(B) Some politicians are scrupulously honest.
Could be true, given are premises they would just be ineffective.

(C) Some people define a politician's job as obeying the rules of society.
Could be true, we don't know how people define a politicians job.

(D) Some Politicians are ineffective.
Could be true, does not violate any premises.

[tommywallach]

Heyo a3friedm,

Great structural approach here, but I just wanted to weigh in on the breakdown of the stimulus and the answer choices. In my opinion, there's no need to do this one as conditional logic, because there isn't that much information. Conditional logic (breaking things down into acronyms and conditional statements) is only useful when the passages are more complex.

One side note--this is an INFERENCE question, yet the passage effectively has a premise/conclusion (without an assumption). This is rare, but it does happen.

Conclusion: All effective politicians are rotten.
Premise: One must be deceitful to do the job properly.

It's not a good idea to do the first sentence as conditional logic, because it's a "some" statement. And the fourth sentence just repeats the third!

A) We know that some people think there are only a few rotten politicians, and we know that the writer of the stimulus believes that all effective politicians are rotten.

B) Again, we only hear about effective politicians, not all politicians.

C) Nowhere in the stimulus is the job of a politician defined.

D) This is a toughie. The argument tells us that all effective politicians are deceitful; we don't know if all deceitful politicians are effective. They could be!

E) CORRECT. The conclusion says you can't be honest and effective!

Hope that helps!

-t

[brandeis.tilleman]

I can't believe that the author repeated a premise in the stimulus just with different words. In all my LSAT prep I can't remember if I've ever come across it.

On another note, can someone elaborate a little more on the logic behind why answer choice A is wrong? Why must it be the case that some people think all politicians are rotten must be false because the stimulus states that some people think that a few politicians are rotten?

If that makes sense haha..