#22 - The universe as a whole necessarily tends toward great

[Dave Killoran]

Complete Question Explanation

Parallel Flaw. The correct answer choice is (A).

There are two relevant aspects of the stimulus as far as selecting the correct answer:

• 1. The stimulus contains a "Whole to Part" flaw, also known as an Error of Division.
  
  The argument begins with a premise about the universe as a whole moving toward disorder and then concludes that a part of the universe—the earth's biosphere—must also have been moving toward disorder. Note that the last clause ("...in spite of...") is a counter-premise that doesn't impact the main argument (and is largely ignored in the answers, save for (C)).
  
  
  2. The conclusion uses absolute language in the form of "always," and the correct answer will need to reflect that absolute aspect.
  
  Note that the premise in the first sentence is an unusual one, since it appears to hinge on the word "tends," which would suggest a probabilistic nature. But note carefully the prior word, "necessarily." This gives that premise a more absolute aspect as well, something that can also be matched.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The conclusion is actually presented first in this answer, but since that does not affect the logical structure of the argument, that is not a relevant consideration. The remainder of the answer matches out stimulus perfectly:

• The entire system of interconnected lakes as a whole is one of the most beautiful beautiful, and therefore Wooded Lake is also one of the most beautiful. and, the conclusion uses absolute language "is."

Answer choice (B): This is perhaps the trickiest wrong answer. The Whole-to-Part aspect is in play (Whole = coldest month; Part = cold day), and that matches the stimulus reasonably well, so that is not the problem here. The difference comes at the end of the answer in the conclusion, which uses "likely," a probabilistic term and not an absolute one as seen in the stimulus.

Answer choice (C): The error in this answer is more a Part-to-Whole flaw. Every deck has some commercial storage, and so a conclusion is drawn that every deck is devoted to (or wholly) commercial storage. The answer also throws in a sort of counter-premise at the end to further attempt to trap readers. As noted above, the counter-premise is not essential to the flaw in the reasoning.

Answer choice (D): The stimulus is clear about a fact relating to "every person," and thus it must also apply to Hopper. Thus, the reasoning here does not appear to be immediately flawed.

Answer choice (E): The relationship in this answer is also a Part-to-Whole (Part = 2 of 7 parts; Whole = the entire assembly), and so this answer can be eliminated. Note that this answer isn't necessarily flawed; if 2 of 7 critical parts are unsafe, the conclusion actually makes sense that it's unsafe to rely on and ought to be repaired.

[lsatquestions]

Would it be fair to eliminate B also because of the word "any?" The stimulus is saying one part of the universe is moving towards disorder since the entire universe tends toward greater disorder, not that any part of the universe would do the same.

[Robert Carroll]

lsatquestions,

I think you're making a good point. The stimulus is about a particular place in the universe. Answer choice (A) is about a particular place in the system of lakes. Answer choice (B) is not about any one particular place but considers each day in April by reference.

Note that what Dave said above about the likelihood element is also a sufficient reason to eliminate answer choice (B).

Robert Carroll

[momog230]

This was a tough one for me.

Personally, I chose B because it has a similarity to the part/whole flaw in question over A in that the "coldness" of each day in April contributes to the total tally of the "coldness" of April. This is similar to how the disorder of each part of the universe contributes to the overall tally of disorder in the universe. However, a "beautiful system" might have different criteria from the total beauty of each part (i.e. the way the lakes are interconnected makes for a beautiful system even if each lake isn't beautiful on its own).

I believe that the "likely"/"always" flaw you pointed out is a bit weak since I have found other parallel questions where it wasn't a deal breaker and the similarity between the passage and B I drew above might be more powerful than the "likely" "always" flaw you mentioned.

I was thinking that the reason B is wrong is actually because it includes two flaws: 1) Parts/whole 2) Relativity- Just because it's colder than the past 50 Aprils, doesn't mean that it is unseasonably cold! Maybe the last 50 Aprils were unseasonably hot and this April is seasonably perfect. Since the passage we were given only includes one of these flaws, A is a better choice.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

[Dana D]

Hey momog230,

I think Dave is on the money here - answer choice (B), as he said, is making a part to whole error like the stimulus, but the "likely" is actually very important here. Answer (B) says this has been the coldest April - the whole month - meaning the majority of days were likely unseasonably cold, which means the conclusion, that any given day of the month was likely also unseasonably cold is not an unreasonable argument to make. The argument is still flawed, because we are talking about generalities in weather here and we don't know exactly how this April compares to others.

Answer choice (A), then, is most similar to the stimulus, precisely because of the deterministic language. The stimulus is absolute - the earth is always moving towards disorder. Similarly, Wooded lake is one of the most beautiful lakes.

Hope that helps!