examples of "rejecting a view based on inadequate argument"

yoojin2782

Hello!!

While drilling the flaw question types, I ran into an answer choice in PT 62 that says that the author "rejects a view merely on the grounds that an inadequate argument has been made for it."

However, this was not the correct answer choice and I'm wondering if there are any example questions where I can see a passage that actually matches this flaw.

I'm just curious what this flaw would look like in actual questions.

Thanks in advance!

canihazJD

"Lack of evidence is not evidence of lacking," or an appeal from/to ignorance.

This is where one claims a proposition is true because it has not been proven false or a proposition is false because it has not been proven true.

In other words, you can't say a claim is false just because a bad argument was made for it.

KevinLuminateLSAT

@yoojin2782 Check out PT72 Section 3 #11 and PT86 Section 4 #16

qcolo1224

What @canihazJD said is great. Here's a supporting example:

Michael argues that we should have gun control. He bases his conclusion on a comparison between the U.S and Australia. The U.S. has many mass shootings and few gun control laws. Meanwhile, Australia enacted gun control and subsequently saw a reduction in mass shootings. However, everyone knows Australia and the U.S. are substantively different. Therefore, we should not have gun control.

This has the same flaw. Just because someone has not adequately proven an argument does not make that position false. Think about it - there can (and tbh are) other more compelling reasons to have gun control outside the premise Michael provides. The only reasonable conclusion the above author can draw from the premises is something like "Thus, Michael's argument rests on a faulty assumption" or "Michael does not present a persuasive argument."