Do "Parallel" credited responses not consider "some," "many," "most," et cetera?

danielznelson

I've been missing many "Parallel" (both flaw and not) because of, say, a credited response containing "most" while the passage does not. Am I to generally ignore quantifiers with these question types?

bstew2002

No, the modifiers/quantifiers are important. Are you paying attention to their synonymous interpretations? Majority=Most, some=a few=many=several, likely=most of the time, etc.

blah170blah

There will never be a modifier or quantifier shift between the passage and the right answer. It's actually one of the fastest ways to eliminate wrong answers.

danielznelson

I am, but it seems that some questions bypass this in favor of using just the argument structure as the determinant to the credited response, and it's really throwing me off.

bstew2002

@danielznelson Can you give us some specific examples? PT/S/Q# Please. This will help us help you.

danielznelson

http://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-35-section-4-question-06/?nonce=139c9a94ed

I get the reasoning in this question, for sure, and in fact, I only selected another answer because of the quantifier "most" in the credited response. "Many" would only indicate "some," correct? Am I missing something?

danielznelson

It seems that with some of the more difficult questions, the quantifier are subtly changed without erasing the possibility of whatever answer choice with such a change being the correct answer.

Student76

Many or some can be most. In this situation you shouldn't get too involved with what else it could mean if it could mean what you need it to. The flaw has nothing to do with the amount of people. Some flaws are related to the amount, this is related to the justification of not doing anything about the concern.

danielznelson

That's a perfect answer, thanks! I've totally forgotten to consider the ambiguity of "many" or "some" to potentially be consistent with "most." Thanks again!

bstew2002

Many can equal most, but not necessarily. The important thing about @danielznelson 's example is that the flaw is a correlation-causation fallacy (or false cause, whatever you want to call it), which is only contained in one answer choices. The "most" in this stimulus does not affect the fallacy. If it were invalidly integrated into the pattern of reasoning (i.e. A most B most C, ergo A most C), then the difference would be very relevant. But it only refers to the quantity of opinion givers, so it is not as important.

When I do these questions, I always match the flaw conceptually first. Recognizing flaws/weakness/invalidities in arguments could be the most fundamental skill for LSAT Logical Reasoning.

Further, this answer choice could have said "one person said X, but [insert false cause], so he's wrong/not X." The fallacy remains the same. Go with that. The modifier is not part of the reasoning.

danielznelson

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to rewire my route to obtaining the correct answer, rather than nixing choices with different quantifiers. I do fine with these questions overall, but there are a few that have introduced something like I mentioned and have left me a bit befuddled. Now, I know I will no longer have that problem. These answers are fantastic. Thanks again, all!

Dr. Yamata

Most implies some. (Many, a portion of, few) Think about it..

If we're given the fact that MOST DOCTORS ARE LAWYERS.

In LSAT language, that's greater than 50% of doctors are lawyers. That would certainly imply that 1% of doctors are lawyers, 2%, 3%.. etc. aka "some"

Furthermore, all implies most (which implies some) in a cascading truth-functional fashion. You can't go back up from SOME though. Some wouldn't imply most or all.

TBH I can't recall a question where this inference was tested, but why isn't it fair game?

Additionally, subtle shifts in the language could be allowed under the "which response MOST parallels the reasoning" in which case they'd only have to get the credited response closer than all the rest.

danielznelson

I don't think I've ever caught that subtle difference in the question itself. Interesting...