LSAT 155 – Section 1 – Question 20

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Question
QuickView
Type Tags Answer
Choices
Curve Question
Difficulty
Psg/Game/S
Difficulty
Explanation
PT155 S1 Q20
+LR
+Exp
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Lack of Support v. False Conclusion +LSvFC
A
14%
158
B
59%
164
C
16%
154
D
2%
151
E
8%
156
145
156
167
+Harder 147.037 +SubsectionMedium

Mr. Klemke argues that the complaints recently lodged against his roofing company are unfounded, on the grounds that each of the complainants disagrees with Klemke’s widely known political views and is therefore biased. However, having a different political outlook from Klemke’s would in no way prevent one from being badly treated by his company. Clearly, then, the complaints are not, as Mr. Klemke alleges, unfounded.

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
Klemke argues that the complaints against his company are unfounded, because each of the complainants is biased against Klemke due to his political views.
The author points out that Klemke’s argument is flawed, because bias against Klemke doesn’t prevent someone from having legitimate complaints about Klemke’s services. Based on the fact Klemke’s argument is flawed, the author concludes that the complaints against Klemke are not unfounded.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The author overlooks the difference between pointing out an argument is flawed and showing that an argument’s conclusion is false. Although Klemke’s argument is flawed, that doesn’t prove the complaints against him are not unfounded. Klemke’s conclusion could still be correct, even if his argument is flawed.

A
takes a consequence of someone’s being biased to be a cause of the bias
The author does not have any opinion about whether the people complaining about Klemke are biased or the cause of such bias. The author’s position is that if there is bias, that doesn’t prove the complaints are unfounded, which is why Klemke’s argument is flawed.
B
concludes that a claim is false on the grounds that an inadequate argument has been given for it
The author concludes that Klemke’s conclusion (that the complaints are unfounded) is false, merely on the grounds that Klemke’s argument in favor of it is flawed. Although Klemke’s support for his conclusion is inadequate, that doesn’t show his conclusion is wrong.
C
rejects an argument on the grounds that the person who offered the argument is biased
The author rejects Klemke’s argument, but not because Klemke is biased. The author does not claim that Klemke is biased or dismiss his argument because of his bias. (Klemke rejects others’ complaints because of alleged bias, but that’s not what the author does.)
D
relies on a sample of opinions that is unlikely to represent diverse political outlooks
The author’s argument is not based on a sample of opinions. It is based on the claim that Klemke’s argument is flawed.
E
overlooks the possibility that people whose views diverge are unaware of their disagreement
Whether people are aware of disagreement has no bearing on the author’s reasoning. The author argued that because Klemke’s argument is flawed, Klemke’s conclusion is false. Disagreement or awareness of disagreement doesn’t relate to the author’s reasoning.

This is a Flaw/Descriptive Weakening question.

The argument opens with OPA. Mr. Klemke argues that the complaints made against his company are unfounded. That’s his conclusion (OPC). His premises (OPP) are that the complainants are biased because they disagree with his political views.

Let’s pause there and analyze OPA. Is the reasoning strong? No. It’s a classic source attack. And that’s exactly what the author recognizes and calls out in her next sentence. She says that the complainants can be mistreated by Mr. Klemke’s company regardless of their political views. That’s true. That’s why Mr. Klemke’s argument is flawed.

The author, however, proceeds to draw her own flawed conclusion. She should have simply concluded that “Mr. Klemke has failed to prove that the complaints are unfounded.” That means we don’t know if the complaints are founded or unfounded. We only know that Mr. Klemke failed to make a case for their being unfounded.

What did she actually conclude? That “the complaints are not unfounded.” That means the complaints are substantiated. But they haven’t been substantiated. There’s no evidence at all that pertains to whether these complaints are true or false.

This is a classic flaw that conflates weakening an argument with proving the conclusion of said argument to be false. Weakening an argument erodes the support between the premise and the conclusion. It is engaged at an abstract level with the argument. If you want to show that the statement in the conclusion is false, then you have to descend to the ground level of what the argument is talking about: whose house and what roof and what date was the service provided and what went wrong, etc. You’d have to bring facts (premises) to bear on those issues if you want to prove the complaints are founded or unfounded. That’s very different from the premises the author actually offers which lives one level above these issues.

This is what Correct Answer Choice (B) points out. It says that the argument concludes that a claim (the complaints are unfounded) is false (they’re not unfounded) on the grounds that an inadequate argument has been given for it (Mr. Klemke’s source attack argument is inadequate).

Answer Choice (A) says that the argument takes a consequence of someone’s being biased to be a cause of the bias. (A) charged the argument with confusing cause and effect. But the argument doesn’t do that. What is “a consequence of someone’s being biased”? According to Mr. Klemke, it causes the person to lodge false accusations at his company. According to the author, nothing. What is “a cause of the bias”? According to Mr. Klemke, having political views different from his own. According to the author, nothing. So according to (A), the argument, that is, the author’s argument confused nothing with nothing. Even if we take (A) to be describing Mr. Klemke’s argument, which we shouldn’t because that’s not the argument in question, but just as an exercise, even if we do, (A) is still descriptively inaccurate. Mr. Klemke didn’t confuse a person lodging false accusations at his company with a person having political views.

Answer Choice (C) says that the argument rejects an argument on the grounds that the person who offered the argument (Mr. Klemke) is baised. (C) fails to accurately describe both the premise and the conclusion. The author never claimed that Mr. Klemke is biased. Mr. Klemke accused someone else of being biased. So the premise descriptor is false. The conclusion should have rejected an argument because that would have been the right move. But, as we discussed, it actually rejected Mr. Klemke’s conclusion. So the conclusion descriptor is false as well.

Answer Choice (D) says that the argument relies on a sample of opinions (false, the author’s premise does not rely on a sample of opinions) that is unlikely to represent diverse political outlooks.

Answer Choice (E) says that the argument overlooks the possibility that people whose views diverge are unaware of their disagreement. It’s unclear whether the argument overlooks this but it doesn’t matter because this has nothing to do with why the argument is flawed. Mr. Klemke is a person whose (political) views are different from his dissatisfied customers. Mr. Klemke is clearly aware of this divergence in views. It’s unclear whether his customers are aware.

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