LR Question 8 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Marcia: Not all vegetarian diets lead to nutritional…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
ARGUMENTS: Marcia argues that it’s possible to get all required nutrients on a vegetarian diet.
Theodora argues that vegetarianism will lead to economic trouble, and therefore it will cause nutrient deficiencies due to poverty.
ANALYSIS: Theodora misses the point. Marcia was talking about the effects of vegetarianism on a single person’s body. She was not talking about the societal implications of vegetarianism.
So, Theodora completely fails to address whether or not individual people can get adequate nutrients on a vegetarian diet.
___________
- CORRECT. Marcia was not talking about the large scale changes in society that might occur due to vegetarianism. Marcia was only talking about how well an individual could do on a vegetarian diet.
- This is tempting, but “ignoring the research” doesn’t quite capture Theodora’s error. It’s more accurate to say that Theodora simply missed the point. Theodora was so far off topic that she doesn’t even know what research she should be ignoring.
Example of flaw: Theodora says science is clear that vegetarians can’t survive, and no study could possibly show otherwise. Theodora has ignored the study Marcia cites as evidence. - Theodora didn’t say that only vegetarianism could lead to problems in the meat industry.
- Both Marcia and Theodora use diet in the same sense: the totality of food eaten by a person.
- Theodora didn’t say that people who lose jobs will become vegetarian. She said they’d be poor! Too poor to afford food.
More Resources for Flaw Questions
- Flaw drills: Use these to practice making examples of abstract flaws.
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Flaw questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers flaw questions.
Can I say T’s argument is a distortion of M’s under the method of reasoning question type? Not only because T is talking about indirect impact on others while M direct effect on the person who are vegetarian, but also because T’s conclusion is the whole category cannot lead to a result while M is saying not all will have a particular result.
I’d hesitate to use terms like “indirect” and “direct” in this sort of context — remember, if something leads to a result, it leads to a result.
I think it’s more accurate to say that the issue here is that Marcia is not saying that no vegetarian diet leads to nutritional deficiencies. She’s just saying “not all” do. So, Theodora is mischaracterizing Marcia’s argument when she says: “You are wrong in claiming that vegetarianism cannot lead to nutritional deficiencies;” Marcia doesn’t actually make that claim.