PT10.S1.Q23 - No one knows what purposes, if any, dreams serve

sarakatesilvasarakatesilva Core Member
edited April 25 in Logical Reasoning 6 karma

Hello,

I'm trying to understand why answer choice (a) for this question is incorrect.

I chose answer choice A and am struggling to understand why it's wrong. I understand why D is correct, but I can't get comfortable with ruling out A, and I went back and forth between the two for a while before deciding on A. The tutor in this video said that the issue lies with "all relevant respects", saying that we have no relevant connections to an anteater. However, I would think that we are talking in the frame of mammals - "all species that are similar in all relevant respects" = mammals, all of which, except for the anteater, dream. So, facts about one species of animal (spiny anteater, the specific facts being about their brain size) provide confirmation for hypotheses about all species that are similar in all relevant respects (mammals, the hypothesis being the parasitic connection hypothesis) to the particular species in question (again, spiny anteater). Does anyone have any additional thoughts on why this is wrong / other methods of ruling it out?

[Admin note: Format for posting questions about specific Logical Reasoning (LR) questions:
"PT#.S#.Q# - brief description of question"; Do not post LSAT questions, any copyrighted content, or links to content that infringe on copyright.]

Comments

  • annabellouise.jonesannabellouise.jones Core Member
    22 karma

    Just to start at the same place, (A) says that "Facts about one species of animal can provide confirmation for hypotheses about all species that are similar in all relevant respects to the
    particular species in question." In answer choice A, the "facts about one species of animal" that "can provide confirmation for hypotheses about all species" would refer to anteaters. Answer choice A is saying that the fact we just learned about anteaters is useful because humans are "similar in all relevant aspects to the particular species (anteaters) in question." However, the stimulus actually says that humans are different from anteaters. Humans may dream to clear out their memories in their small brains, while anteaters don't need to dream because they have large brains. Thus, answer choice A doesn't make sense when saying that facts about anteaters provide us confirmation for hypotheses about species that are similar in all relevant respects to humans because the stimulus uses anteaters to juxtapose against humans (humans and anteaters are not similar but different). Another problem with A is that A really overgeneralizes. The stimulus is comparing anteaters and humans (two species) not anteaters and "all species" that could be similar in "all relevant aspects" to anteaters as A says. Hope this makes sense and let me know if you have any more questions, I'd be happy to help! :)

  • 1stWorldProblems1stWorldProblems Live Member
    716 karma

    answer A is wrong because the argument isn’t using the anteater as a confirmation of hypo for ALL species, only ‘some’. hope that helps.

Sign In or Register to comment.