LSAT 159 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q1

LR Question 1 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Columnist: The dangers of drinking are greatly exaggerated …

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: The dangers of drinking alcohol for someone’s lifespan are very exaggerated.

REASONING: My grandfather drank a lot his whole life and lived until he was 95.

ANALYSIS: That’s a dumb argument. Just because one anecdotal piece exists to prove otherwise, doesn’t mean the general evidence is exaggerated. One anecdotal case doesn’t prove anything. It’s like arguing this:

My friend eats McDonald’s every day and is in good health. So doctors exaggerate when they say fast food causes health problems.

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1. Irrelevant. The medical press talked about the dangers of drinking, not the morality of drinking. We’re only concerned with whether alcohol shortens your lifespan.
   Example of flaw: Some people say alcohol is immoral. But this is false, because alcohol sales increase GDP.
2. The argument is that alcohol doesn’t shorten lifespan. So this doesn’t help. We don’t need to prove that something else shortens lifespan in order to get alcohol off the hook.
    
   This answer would only fit as a flaw when there is an obvious alternate explanation that an author is ignoring.
   Example of flaw: This man is clearly drunk. I see empty whisky bottles nearby, and some fruit. I have heard fermented fruit contains alcohol. So, obviously, this man fermented some fruit, then drank the fermented juice, and got drunk.
3. The columnist is trying to disprove a claim about lifespan, not quality of life. This flaw doesn’t fit here.
4. There’s no confusion between cause and effect.
   Example of flaw: People who drink heavily often have high stress levels. So clearly, the drinking is what creates their stress.
5. CORRECT. A general claim means “alcohol (in general) shortens your lifespan”. An anecdote is evidence about a single case, such as the author’s grandfather. A single person’s situation can’t disprove a general claim.
    
   Alcohol can make people live less long on average even if a single person lives a long time while drinking heavily.