#5 - Pundit: Clearly, the two major political parties in

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[kliu49]

Hello,

What type of flaw would the answer (e) be considered?

Thanks!
Kat

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Kat,

The author makes an unwarranted assumption that just because the vote was close that it means there was a sharp division. It's not really a traditional "named" flaw like a source Argument or Mistaken Reversal, but instead part of a very broad category where the author makes a leap that's not justified.

Thanks!

[lsatprep2345]

Hi why would answer choice A be incorrect? And what might be some examples of questions/arguments that do confuse the cause of something with the effect?

Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi lsatprep,

Answer choice (A) is incorrect because there's no causal reasoning here. The stimulus doesn't say WHY the parties are sharply divided. For causal arguments, we are looking for an explanation of why something is occurring.

Here's an example of a causal statement. "My headaches cause my vertigo." The cause there is headaches, and the effect is vertigo. You could however imagine the opposite relationship. It could be the case that vertigo causes my headaches. For the cause and effect to be flipped, the order of the cause and effect needs to be flipped. The cause always must come before the effect, so in many cases, this answer choice would not make sense. For example, if you had a causal statement that said rain causes puddles, it wouldn't make sense to switch the cause and effect. Puddles wouldn't be able to cause rain. But there are some causal relationships (like vertigo and headaches) where the order could make sense either way.

Hope that helps!