Q18 - Lindsey: Several people claim that our company

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
ID the Flaw

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: The company acted fairly.

Premises: The company promised that if it increased profits over last year, the staff would get bonuses. The company's profit was much smaller this year than last year.

Answer Anticipation:
This argument exhibits a common riff on the Unproven vs. Untrue Flaw: It rules out one argument in favor of a position and concludes the opposite of that position. This fails to consider that there are other possible arguments in favor of that position!

Correct answer:
B

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Appeal to Inappropriate Authority? Not in this argument! Sure, we refer to "several people" in the opposing point, but the argument doesn't hinge on their authority, because we conclude the opposite of their opinion!

(B) Bingo! Here's a perfect match for our prephrase. If you struggle with the abstract language here, replace the abstract terms with concrete language from the stimulus. Infers that an opinion (the company acted unfairly) is false merely because one potential reason for that opinion (it was promised that higher profits meant bonuses) has been undermined.

(C) Ad Hominem? Not today, LSAT! There's no attack made on the arguer here.

(D) Tempting! We are talking about quantities when we talk about the profits. There are a couple of problems, though. First, our quantity is decreasing, not increasing. Second, we're always talking about the size of the quantity overall. Yes, the quantity decreases from one year to the next, but we don't ever talk about the actual amount of the decrease, only that the overall quantity in the second year is less than the overall quanity in the first.

(E) First off, we're not overlooking the possibility that the policy can be fair: we're concluding that it is fair! Second, generosity is not at issue. Eliminate!

Takeaway/Pattern:
The Famous Flaws are making a LOT of appearances in this section. And that makes sense. With only one section with which to test your logical reasoning skills, it stands to reason that concepts typically tested heavily across two sections would be more highly concentrated when you have only one.

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