Self-study
Opposition leader: Support Our country has the least fair court system of any country on the continent and ought not to be the model for others. █████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████
Method of Reasoning
The argument starts with an analysis of the overall fairness of the country’s court system (the country’s court system is the least fair of any country on the continent and shouldn’t be emulated). It then moves to a conclusion about the fairness of the country’s highest court (it’s the least fair of any on the continent and shouldn’t be emulated).
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is a cookie-cutter whole-to-part flaw. The only support is about a whole set (the country’s court system), while the conclusion is about an individual part of that set (the highest court). But the fairness of a country’s court system as a whole doesn’t tell us about the fairness of any specific courts in the system, so we can’t infer that the highest court must be the most unfair court on the continent just because the country’s court system is the most unfair. It’s possible that the highest court isn’t the most unfair court on the continent even though the country’s court system is the most unfair.
21.
The flawed reasoning in which ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ █████████
a
The residents of ████████████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ █ ████████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ █████ ██ ████ █ █████
Wrong flaw. The argument in (A) errs because the premise discusses the intelligence of people who reside in medium-sized towns and then the conclusion states that Monica isn’t as smart as Maureen because Monica wasn’t born in the medium-sized town they live in. The premise wasn’t about being born in a medium-sized town, just about living in one. However, (A) doesn’t commit the “whole-to-part” flaw like the stimulus.
b
At a certain ████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██████████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████████
The argument starts with an analysis of the overall difficulty of two majors (philosophy and engineering being the hardest majors). It then moves to a conclusion about the difficulty of classes within those majors (intro philosophy classes and intro engineering classes). This commits the same whole-to-part flaw as the stimulus because the difficulty of a major doesn’t tell us about the difficulty of specific classes within that major.
c
For many years ███ ████████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ██████████ ███ █████████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████████
Wrong flaw. This argues that because one type of car at the Lawson Automobile company (the racing cars) is good, another type that uses similar parts (the passenger cars) must be good. The stimulus, meanwhile, talks about the fairness of a system (the court system) and then erroneously moves to a conclusion about the fairness of a part of that system (the highest court).
d
Domestic cats are ███████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███████
Wrong flaw. (D) erroneously argues that because one type of cat (domestic cats) is related to another type of cat (tigers), the two types of cats’ eating habits must be almost the same. The stimulus, meanwhile, talks about the fairness of a system (the court system) and then erroneously moves to a conclusion about the fairness of a part of that system (the highest court).
e
If a suit ██ ████████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████
Wrong flaw. (E) erroneously argues that because some suits (those of questionable merit) are more likely to be thrown out in the first district rather than the second, the lawyers will bring their suit to the second district. However, the lawyers may bring their suit to the first district for different reasons. The stimulus, meanwhile, talks about the fairness of a system (the court system) and then erroneously moves to a conclusion about the fairness of a part of that system (the highest court).