LSAT 103 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q21

LR Question 21 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Not all tenured faculty are full professors. Therefore…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Parallel Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Not all tenured professors in the literature department are full professors.

REASONING: Not all tenured professors in the university are full professors.

ANALYSIS: This is a bad argument. It could be professors in the physics department who are tenured but not full professors. Meanwhile, every literature professor could be a full professor.

It has to be true that some professors in the university aren’t full professors. But there don’t have to be tenured, non-full professors in each department.

___________

1. This is a good argument. If all office buildings were modern office towers then they would all be climate controlled.
2. This is a good argument. Some things are massive but not forbidding, because some municipal hospitals are massive but not forbidding.
3. CORRECT. It has to be true that some buildings designed by famous architects aren’t well proportioned. But it doesn’t have to be true that government buildings aren’t well proportioned. The famous architects might take extra care on government buildings. In that case, it could be that only certain commercial buildings designed by famous architects weren’t well proportioned.
4. This is a bad argument. It turns “some” into “all.” But that’s not the same error the stimulus makes.
5. This is a good argument. Buildings can be impressed even if they aren’t made of stone, because this is true of some cathedrals, which are buildings.

Recap: The question begins with “Not all tenured faculty are full professors Therefore”. It is a Flawed Parallel Reasoning question. Learn how to master LSAT Flawed Parallel questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.