"Some" in strengthen-weaken questions

tantan_ice

Hi Everyone!

This seems to be a recurring theme in several LR questions, so perhaps worth considering. When attacking a support (premise to conclusion) in an argument, isn't the use of "some" i.e. other cases or situations, irrelevant - as we cannot know whether our case at hand falls within the scope of that "some".

Take for example the below question on proto-indo-european languages: https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-29-section-1-question-16/

Here, we have to assume that PIE falls within the "some" languages which do not have words for prominent environmental conditions.

However, in the question on chess players and humming (link below), apparently it is wrong to assume that the humming falls within the scope of "some" involuntary actions as per AC (C).

https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-20-section-4-question-25/

Any thoughts welcome!

canihazJD

@"Tanya Bansal" said:
When attacking a support (premise to conclusion) in an argument, isn't the use of "some" i.e. other cases or situations, irrelevant - as we cannot know whether our case at hand falls within the scope of that "some".

Not always. For instance consider a causal argument:

white dogs bark more
so being white is what makes them bark

weakener: some dogs turn whiter the more they bark
weakener: some white dogs don't bark
weakener: some barking dogs are not white
weakener: some platypus sometimes love to agitate only white dogs

Attention to quantifiers (and prescriptive/descriptive language, strength, etc.) is pretty important, but it doesn't mean you automatically deem the answer irrelevant. A better approach would be to get proficient in when they can/cannot work, and see them as flags or alarms... just points of interest that you can evaluate inline for validity as part of your translation.

zoomzoom

While I do agree with you that "some" on Weaken/Strengthen questions are often not the correct answer, it is not bulletproof. There are absolutely questions where the correct answer does hinge on "some."

What I will recommend though is this - if you are short on time or absolutely lost, I would use this "some" as an easy way to narrow the answer choices. But again, only when it's in that situation.