Exam LSAT Section 1 Logical Reasoning topic 1 question 113 discussion

Actual exam question from Test Prep's LSAT Section 1 Logical Reasoning

Question #: 113
Topic #: 1

[All LSAT Section 1 Logical Reasoning Questions]

All too many weaklings are also cowards, and few cowards fail to be fools. Thus there must be at least one person who is both a weakling and a fool.
The flawed pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most similar to that in which one of the following?

A. All weasels are carnivores and no carnivores fail to be non-herbivores, so some weasels are non-herbivores.
B. Few moralists have the courage to act according to the principles they profess, and few saints have the ability to articulate the principles by which they live, so it follows that few people can both act like saints and speak like moralists.
C. Some painters are dancers, since some painters are musicians, and some musicians are dancers.
D. If an act is virtuous, then it is autonomous, for acts are not virtuous unless they are free, and acts are not free unless they are autonomous.
E. A majority of the voting population favors a total ban, but no one who favors a total ban is opposed to stiffer tariffs, so at least one voter is not opposed to stiffer tariffs.

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: C 🗳️
After a Parallel Reasoning Question (see Q. 23 in the first LR section, above) in which the stimulus and 5 choices all look remarkably similar, now we have one in which the six arguments couldnt look less alike. No worries, however. The covenant between you and the testmaker is that one and only one choice does work for sure. Lets take the stimulus apart for starters.
The "All too many" is just literary, not logical, in nature. The first clause simply means Many or Some weaklings are cowards. The second clause can be read as
Many or Most or Some cowards are fools. (Why are we seemingly being so loose in our translations? Because the choices are. Because whichever one of these turns out to be correct, it represents a significant verbal variation on the original. None of the choices reads "All too many X," or "few Y are not Z." So we have to stay a little flexible here.) With that in mind, a loose translation of the first clause would be: Some (or Most) of A are B, and the second as Some (or Most) B are C.
When we turn to the conclusion, however, we can feel confident that it can be solidly translated. We know from our formal logic training that the phrase "At least one" means precisely one thing: SOME. So the conclusion is: Some weaklings are fools. Now, given that conclusion, we ought probably to be drawn first to A., C., and E., each of whose conclusions uses the word "Some" or the phrase "At least one." Let’s start with those three.

by [deleted] at March 9, 2025, 1:26 p.m.

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Exam LSAT Section 1 Logical Reasoning topic 1 question 113 discussion

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