PT34.S2.Q24 - the defendant wanted to clear the snow off his car

evanoxax

http://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-34-section-2-question-24/

I just signed up for 7sage today after reviewing the LG! pretty impressed and want to give it a try.

I have difficulty understanding a logic reasoning Q: 34/section2/number 24.

conclusion: the defendant maliciously harmed the plaintiff.
Premise: malice is intention to harm; defendant intentionally harmed the plaintiff coz the snow that def wanted to get rid of on her car harmed plaintiff;

i intuitively knew the answer but i could not articulate what's wrong with the argument. can anyone help expalinit ?

many thanks!
Evan

CFC152436

I'm not sure if the flaw has a formal name, but the lawyer has assumed that just because one thing has a certain quality, that another thing must also have that same quality.

1. Defendant intentionally moved the snow
2. The plaintiff was harmed as a result of the intentionally moved snow
Therefore,
3. Defendant intentionally harmed the plaintiff

The defendant intentionally performed A, and, as a result of A, B occured. From this, the lawyer has concluded that the defendant intentionally performed B. Why is this an invalid argument? Well, put simply, we can't transfer the intentionally of the original action to all of the action's eventual consequences (especially because the consequences occured unbeknownst to the defendent). In other words, the lawyer has assumed that simply because the snow shoveling was intentional, that the harm was intentional as well. Unfortunately for him, there's no logical reason why this has to be true. Consider the following: I intentionally move my arm across the table, and, in doing so, knock over the salt container. Can we conclude that I intentionally knocked over the salt container? I suppose we could, but it certainly wouldn't be a valid argument. In short, just because someone intentionally performed an action does not mean that he intended all of the consequences his actions to occur as well.

Hope this helps!

evanoxax

gracias!!! it is clear now!