LSAT 102 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q9

LR Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Consumer advocate: Last year’s worldwide alarm about a…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: There was no real threat from the virus.

REASONING: Anti-virus companies sold a lot of software, and in the end, there wasn’t much of a problem.

ANALYSIS: You can tell this is an old LSAT; they had to define “computer virus”.

This is a bad argument. It’s possible there was no a threat.

Yet it’s also possible that there was a large threat, but the anti-virus software prevented most of the damage. The advocate gives no evidence that the software was useless.

___________

1. This isn’t a circular argument. The advocate did give a reason: little damage was done.
2. We don’t care about other viruses. The advocate is only talking about this particular virus.
3. This is a causation-correlation error, and it doesn’t happen here. An example is: The sun rises, and you win the lottery. Therefore the sun caused your victory.
4. The advocate does provide evidence: there was little damage done.
5. CORRECT. The antivirus companies might have saved the world with their software. The advocate gives no evidence the software programs were useless against the virus.

Recap: The question begins with “Consumer advocate: Last year’s worldwide alarm about a”. It is a Flawed Reasoning question. Learn how to master LSAT Flaw questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.