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ANOTHER Problem with an LSAT Question
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:02 AM Author: Carmine cheese-eating theater stage chad Criminologist: The main purpose of most criminal organizations is to generate profits. The ongoing revolutions in biotechnology and information technology promise to generate enormous profits. Therefore, criminal organizations will undoubtedly try to become increasingly involved in these areas.
The conclusion of the criminologist’s argument is properly inferred if which one of the following is assumed?
(A) If an organization tries to become increasingly involved in areas that promise to generate enormous profits, then the main purpose of that organization is to generate profits. (B) At least some criminal organizations are or will at some point become aware that the ongoing revolutions in biotechnology and information technology promise to generate enormous profits. (C) Criminal organizations are already heavily involved in every activity that promises to generate enormous profits. (D) Any organization whose main purpose is to generate profits will try to become increasingly involved in any technological revolution that promises to generate enormous profits. (E) Most criminal organizations are willing to become involved in legal activities if those activities are sufficiently profitable.
SPOILER
The correct answer is the first letter of the animal considered to be man's best friend.
This answer is NOT SUFFICIENT to allow the conclusion to be "properly inferred", UNLESS we interpret the conclusion -- "criminal organizations will undoubtedly ..." as meaning "some" or "most" criminal organizations and NOT "all". This is because the first premise tells us only that "most" criminal organizations are into getting profits. So even if you add the correct answer to the argument, the strongest conclusion you could make is that "Most criminal organizations will try to get increasingly involved..."
But here, if the conclusion is supposed to be a claim about "criminal organizations" in the sense of "each criminal organization", then the conclusion is NOT properly inferred by adding the assumption in the correct answer. The correct answer is only sufficient if we interpret "criminal organizations" as meaning "some" or "most". Can someone tell me if I have something wrong here?
"As are B." I would normally interpret that as saying every A is a B. But I grant that, in some contexts, that might mean more generally, "There are As that are B." How the hell are we supposed to distinguish the two meanings? Is there some rule of the English language?
"Dinosaurs are extinct." Does that mean all dinos, or just some/most?
"Football players with 1 year of experience in NFL are used to taking hits." Does that mean all football players with 1 year of experience in the NFL or jsut some/most of them?
"Criminal organizations will try to become increasingly involved in tech revolutions." Does that mean all crim orgs or just some/most? What distinguishes this last example from the first two? |
Date: March 20th, 2017 11:02 AM Author: wonderful mentally impaired locus ur getting closer (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872748) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:12 AM Author: Carmine cheese-eating theater stage chad twin and other lsat masters, pls halp (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872826) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:21 AM Author: Lilac vengeful sound barrier native Take this weakassed shit to LSD. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872894) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:28 AM Author: Nofapping lay digit ratio yes it means all (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872930) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:31 AM Author: Rusted Preventive Strike Nibblets i think i know what he means though. like, if someone says "Jews are stingy" or "dogs are cute", it's an acceptable overgeneralization that can be understood to mean "most Jews are stingy" or "most dogs are cute". D is still by far the safest answer here though. |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:31 AM Author: Nofapping lay digit ratio and some, i assume, are good people (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872939) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:36 AM Author: beady-eyed ceo shrine Your analogy is off the mark. To put your examples into the same form as (D), they should read as follows:
"Anyone who is a jew is stingy"
"Any animal that is a dog is cute"
By beginning with with the all encompassing phrase "Any organization," (D) unequivocally is ascribing a characteristic to the group consisting of "organization[s] whose main purpose is to generate profits." |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:37 AM Author: Carmine cheese-eating theater stage chad no, he was analogizing to the conclusion, not the answer choice (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872969) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:41 AM Author: beady-eyed ceo shrine Oh, I see.
His conclusion makes a mess of the problem. |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:42 AM Author: Carmine cheese-eating theater stage chad do you see the point of the OP now? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872991) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:45 AM Author: beady-eyed ceo shrine Not really. I understand what he is saying, but his point is retarded. I explain why in my post below. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32873014) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:37 AM Author: Rusted Preventive Strike Nibblets i know, i was using the form from the OP's quote (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872970) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:36 AM Author: Carmine cheese-eating theater stage chad exactly -- the right answer in this problem actually requires that understanding of "criminal organizations will try to ...." otherwise the answer couldn't be sufficient to prove that conclusion. the premises + the correct answer would only support a conclusion of "most criminal organizations will try to...". They are not sufficient to prove "ALL criminal organizations will try to ..." (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32872962) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:44 AM Author: beady-eyed ceo shrine Yeah. "criminal organizations will try to" requires only that 2 or more criminal organizations to get into tech for the logic of the criminologist to be correct.
The easiest way to approach these questions is to identify the minimum requirements for the statement to be true and to give it no more thought after that. This should become intuitive after you have done enough of these problems |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 1:39 PM Author: Disturbing Bateful Twinkling Uncleanness Potus but in other contexts, "As are B" means "All As are B." what distinguishes the meanings?
"Dinosaurs are extinct." No one would interpret this as saying "at least some dinosaurs are extinct", because this sentence applies to the entire category "dinosaurs" and every dinosaur in tthat category. if someone proved that there was a dinosaur that did not go extinct, people would say it's not true that "dinosaurs are extinct."
what distinguishes this example from the example in the criminal organization problem?
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Date: March 20th, 2017 2:57 PM Author: Galvanic Pea-brained Office You are confusing the statement "dinosaurs are extinct" with your knowledge that all dinosaurs are extinct.
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Date: March 20th, 2017 4:38 PM Author: Disturbing Bateful Twinkling Uncleanness Potus "Football players with over 10 years of experience in the NFL are used to taking hits."
would you interpret that as applying to all football players with over 10 years of xp in the NFL, or "some" but not necessarily all?
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Date: March 20th, 2017 2:57 PM Author: beady-eyed ceo shrine That is one of two possible meanings. With that statement, all we know for certain is that 2 or more from group A are also part of group B. As such, for the purpose of weighing the validity of a logical statement, we are limited to working with the narrowest statement possible.
Also, LSAT questions will almost never rely on the unstated assumption that "As are Bs" to convey the meaning that all As are Bs. They will explicitly say "all As are Bs" or some variation of the statement. |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 2:47 PM Author: burgundy reading party This is a lot easier than the other one you'd poasted.
My mind is mush, and I arrive at correct answers through process of elimination and a vague recollection of question groupings. I'm convinced that 175-180 scorers have an extremely strong grasp of formal logic. |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 3:50 PM Author: free-loading haunted graveyard Lol I scored a 175 on the real LSAT and as high as 178 in practice and have totally lost the ability to translate LSAT question gobblygook into logical statements. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32874826) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 5:16 PM Author: swashbuckling at-the-ready dog poop doctorate Once again, just reduce the prompt to a series of premises and then evaluate the answers to see which one fills out a classic Aristotlean syllogism.
This is not a hard one. |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 5:32 PM Author: fighting kitchen (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32875603) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 5:34 PM Author: Disturbing Bateful Twinkling Uncleanness Potus i agree that this problem is very easy. but i'm questioning how we know that the conclusion refers to "some" criminal organizations, but not necessarily all. there's an ambiguity there that i'd like to know how to resolve using some kind of rule of the english language, if possible. if the conclusion means "all criminal organizations..." then the correct answer wouldn't actually be a sufficient assumption. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32875618) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 5:42 PM Author: fighting kitchen (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32875663) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 5:53 PM Author: beady-eyed ceo shrine http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32874412 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32875734) |
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Date: March 20th, 2017 7:47 PM Author: Orange overrated voyeur gunner D (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558689&forum_id=2#32876507) |