QUESTION TEXT: Unplugging a peripheral component such as a “mouse”…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: Fred’s mouse is unplugged.
REASONING: If you unplug a mouse, then any software that needs the mouse will stop working.
Some of Fred’s software that needs a mouse has stopped working.
ANALYSIS: This confuses necessary and sufficient.
Unplugging the mouse is sufficient to make a program stop working.
But if a program stops working, it might not necessarily be because the mouse is unplugged. There are many things that cause software to stop working.
Yes, this LSAT question dates from a time when not everyone knew what a “mouse” was.
___________
- The argument never says whether “unusable” is permanent or temporary.
- CORRECT. There could be other reasons software stops working. Unplugging the mouse is a possible cause, but not the only cause.
- Unplugging a mouse causes software to stop working. So the premise is related to the conclusion.
- Too broad is rarely a problem. Many true statements are broad. e.g. “All dogs have tails”, “all mouse-related software stops working when you unplug the mouse”
- The argument only says that unplugging the mouse will make the programs that require the mouse unusable. Some other programs might still work.
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