Self-study
A severe blow to the head can cause one to lose consciousness; from this some people infer that consciousness is a product of the brain and cannot survive bodily death. ███ █ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ██ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ █████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████
Argument Structure: Critique By Analogy
This argument criticizes an opponent’s reasoning…
Some people: [Brain damage] makes you lose [consciousness], so [consciousness] comes from [the brain] and can’t exist without [the brain].
…by offering an analogous situation in which that same reasoning makes no sense…
Author: [Radio damage] makes you lose [access to radio programs], but no one thinks [radio programs] come from [radios] and can’t exist without [radios].
(^^This is the example of the damaged radio the question stem asks about.^^)
…and says the opponent’s argument therefore fails to prove its conclusion:
Author: We need more than just the above reasoning to conclude consciousness comes from the brain and can’t exist without the brain.
Arguments by analogy are common enough on the LSAT (and in the law, by the way) that you should aspire to recognize them by name when they appear.
11.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████
a
It is cited ██ ████████ ████ █████████████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ ██████
(A) commits a common flaw we call “lack of support vs. false conclusion:” just because an argument fails, that doesn’t necessarily mean its conclusion is false.
The stimulus respects this distinction. It shows that “some people’s” argument isn’t very solid, but stops short of concluding their conclusion is false.
b
It is cited ██ █ ██████████████ ██ █ ██████ ████████ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████████
The cleanest way to dismiss (B) is that “widely accepted” is too strong to be supported by the “some” in the stimulus. Some people think the earth is flat, but that’s not a widely accepted belief.
c
It is cited ██ █ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ██ █████████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████████
(C) hits the nail on the head.
The damaged radio example demonstrates that the same reasoning some people apply to brains and consciousness doesn’t make sense in that analogous scenario.
Similar situations, but “we do not conclude” the same thing in the radio situation as some people conclude in the brains situation.
d
It is cited ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ███
(D) is a structural mismatch – it misstates the argument’s conclusion.
For (D) to be right, the argument should broadly go:
Check out this brain argument.
Check out this radio example.
________
Therefore, these situations are analogous.
The idea that the two situations are analogous is an implicit operating principle underlying the argument’s logic. It’s not the explicit conclusion.
e
It is cited ██ ██ ███████ ██ █ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████
(E) is a structural mismatch – it does an okay job describing the subject matter in abstract terms, but it misstates the author’s purpose in giving the example.
The damaged radio situation arguably is an example of a case in which energy stuff depends on material stuff to provide evidence of its existence. The brain situation is another such example.
But the author’s purpose in bringing up the radio example isn’t to prove that sometimes energy stuff depends on material stuff. They aren’t like “hey check out this feature the brain situation and the radio situation have in common! They’re both energy things that depend on material things!”