#4 - Professor: A guest speaker recently delivered a talk

[lilmissunshine]

Hello,

I can see why (D) is correct but I was wondering why (B) is incorrect. Thanks a lot!

[Adam Tyson]

The problem with answer B, lilmiss, is that the author never gives any indication of how he feels about the views of those dissenting students. It's their behavior (vicious taunts and humiliation) with which he has a problem. He might be completely tolerant of their opposing views, but he thinks a fair-minded and tolerant intellectual debate should be a bit more civil than this.

Answer D is clearly superior, and it should be a good match for your prephrase.

[ShannonOh22]

I may be delirious from subjecting myself to too many LSAT PTs over the last 2 months, but this question stumped me, and it's #4...that should not happen.

Does the author not rely on an emotional appeal in his argument?? I know that answer choice (in this Q, option C) is usually included only as a wrong answer, but the language used in the stimulus really seemed to indicate an appeal to emotion as a flaw in this argument. Can you please 1) explain how that is not the case and 2) provide an example - any example - of a question in which an author DOES use an appeal to emotion incorrectly? There are no examples provided in the Bible for this type of question.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Paul Marsh]

Hi Shannon! You are totally correct that Appeal to Emotion is more commonly included as an incorrect answer choice. I like the description of Appeal to Emotion Flaws that's on Powerscore's website; check the bottom of this link:

https://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/lr_flaws.cfm

There is a stark difference in the type of language used by the example in that link, and the language used by answer choice (C). The Professor in the stimulus does use some strong words ("hurled vicious taunts"), but her conclusion is not predicated upon her emotions or feelings. An Appeal to Emotion Flaw would be more accurate here if the Professor's argument was something akin to: "I cried when the students critiqued the guest speaker. Therefore they were wrong to do so."

On the other hand, whenever we have a general conclusion based on one incident or a couple people, a sample size flaw should immediately come to mind. So (D) is the right answer. Hope that helps!

[blade21cn]

I got this question wrong by choosing (E).

The way I see the argument is that the author tries to draw a conclusion about the universities based upon a few students' behaviors. The universities might indeed made serious efforts to foster fair-minded and tolerant intellectual debate, but universities could still not control students' behaviors. In other words, some students may exhibit outrageous behaviors, but it does not necessarily mean that the universities omit to foster an environment to facilitate fair-minded and tolerant intellectual debate. "Foster" is defined as: encourage or promote the development of (something, typically something regarded as good). "Fostering a conducive environment" has a very different standard from "eliminating all outrageous behaviors." The conclusion would certainly be much stronger, if it had concluded that universities do not "guarantee/ensure" fair-minded and tolerant intellectual debate.

Now, the answer choice part. As for (E), "incorrectly focuses on the behavior of the dissenting students" refers to erroneous use of the premise ("behavior of the dissenting students") in drawing the conclusion. "Relating the reasons for that behavior" is the proper conclusion that can be drawn from behavior of the dissenting students: students' own volition v. the universities omission to foster a conducive environment. In other words, the students' behavior may not necessarily be attributed to the universities, which is a different entity.

As for (D), I failed to see this as a sampling issue. The conclusion was not that the students in general would exhibit similar outrageous behaviors. Rather, the conclusion is about the universities, or the administration, which is kinda the opposing side of the student body.

Where did I go wrong? Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

Was it incorrect for the Professor to focus on the students' behavior, blade21cn? I'd say no, that's not wrong, because the behavior, as opposed to their reasons for behaving that way, is at the very heart of his argument. The Professor is under no obligation to focus on why they are behaving that way, so it is not incorrect to focus on the behavior. That's why this answer does not accurately describe a flaw in the reasoning. A perfectly valid conclusion could have been drawn if the author had limited its scope, saying "some instances of intolerant behavior are condoned by some at this university." That would have been valid because it would have accurately described what happened in this one case, even without addressing the reasons why.

The real problem is that the author took the behavior of a relatively small group of students - the ones hurling vicious taunts and those applauding them - at just one occasion at one university, and projected that onto universities in general. That is very definitely a form of sampling flaw or overgeneralization.

I think your view that "university" means just the administration and is the opposite of the student body is too narrow. A university is made up of faculty, administration, and staff. If the student body is, let's say, very warm and friendly, it would not be wrong to say that the university is warm and friendly.