LSAT 151 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q9

LR Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Until recently it was widely believed that only a limited number …

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: More species can reproduce through parthenogenesis now than before.

REASONING: We used to think only a few species could do it before. Researchers have now discovered it happens in more species than we thought.

ANALYSIS: What if we just didn’t know about all the species who did it before?

Just because we’re discovering more cases now doesn’t mean that it happens more frequently now. The number of such species may not have increased at all. We may simply be learning about species that already had this ability.

The argument is overlooking a difference between an increase in what we know and an increase in the phenomenon itself.

___________

1. The stimulus does mention increased interest. But the argument doesn’t assume that interest itself produces understanding.
2. There’s no causal claim happening in the argument.
3. CORRECT. The argument assumes that because we didn’t know these species reproduced through parthenogenesis before, they must not have been doing so before.
4. Too vague. The argument isn’t really analogizing or treating two situations as similar.
5. There’s no claim that newer research is superior because it’s new. It relies on the discoveries, not the age of the research.