LR Question 18 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: It is impossible to do science without measuring…
QUESTION TYPE: Parallel Reasoning
CONCLUSION: Science is arbitrary.
REASONING: Science needs measurement. Units of measurement will always be arbitrary.
ANALYSIS: This argument is questionable. It’s making the assumption that a thing will be arbitrary if one of its necessary tools is arbitrary.
A parallel argument is: to win the PGA tour you must do a lot of hard work. And hard work is dull. Therefore winning the PGA tour is dull.
The error of these arguments is assuming that the end product has the same qualities as all of its necessary conditions.
___________
- CORRECT. This makes the questionable assumption that performing music is boring if one of the necessary conditions for having acquired the ability to perform music is boring. Performing difficult music is probably fun because you get to impress people.
- This is a bad argument, but only because it shifts from “expanding business” to businesses in general.
- This is a bad argument. Just because one thing is permissible does not mean that any method of achieving that thing is permissible. But this gets the error backwards: it says the methods share all of the qualities of the final goal.
- This is a pretty good argument. If a manager evaluates you, it will be subjective and you will resent him for it.
- This is a good argument. Our source of water will eventually run out and we need a new one.
More Resources for Parallel Reasoning Questions
- Conditional Reasoning Article: Learn about conditional statements.
- LR Diagrams Guide: Learn how to draw LR diagrams.
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Parallel Reasoning questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers parallel reasoning questions.
Is the last “since” in the stimulus a typo?
Do you mean in the LSAT question itself? No, the LSAT as a rule is pretty well proofread and doesn’t have typos.
Note: This is an old comment but I wanted to clarify the point.