#21 - It is highly likely that Claudette is a classical

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning. The correct answer choice is (E)

The flawed reasoning in this stimulus can be broken down as follows:

• Premise: Most people who are not classical pianists don’t recognize Schumann.
  
  Premise: Most classical pianists do recognize Schumann’s work.
  
  Premise: Claudette does recognize Schumann’s work.
  
  Conclusion: Claudette is “highly likely” to be a classical pianist.

The discussion concerns one test case (Claudette), and her placement in one of two groups, classical
pianists or non classical pianists. Since we know nothing of the absolute or even relative sizes of these
two groups, we have no way to assess the likelihood of Claudette’s proper placement into one group or
the other.

In order to determine the likelihood that Claudette is classical pianist, we would need to consider the
population of people who recognize Schumann. Within this group are there more classical pianists or
non-pianists? This would tell us more about the likelihood that Claudette is a classical pianist. The
assumption in the stimulus appears to be that within this Schumann recognition group, there are more
classical pianists than non-classical-pianists.

Answer choice (A): It is not a flaw to ignore this possibility. Familiarity with other works would not
prove that Claudette is not a classical pianist, so this choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): Ignoring the possibility that people could recognize works without knowing of
the composer has no effect on the argument, because the author never stated that Claudette knew the
composer’s name, only that she recognized the works.

Answer choice (C): The stimulus contains no assertions, implicit or explicit, about classical musicians’
abilities with other musical instruments.

Answer choice (D): The term “classical” when describing a pianist is not vague.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. In arriving at the conclusion that Claudette
is highly likely to be a classical pianist, the author must assume that most who recognize Schumann
are classical pianists, thus ignoring the possibility that most Schumann recognizers are actually not
classical-pianists.

[emilysnoddon]

I found this question very difficult. I was choosing between answers B and E but had a hard time seeing why either one was correct.

B - I recognize this is probably wrong because the stimulus says that the vast majority of people who are not classical pianists do not recognize Clara Schumann's works and then says most people who are not classical pianists have not even heard of Clara Schumann. I see how these two lines directly link to make both groups a part of the same category that are neither classical pianists nor have heard of Clara Schumann but given the alternative answer choices I picked this one.

E - I thought that the stimulus did not ignore the possibility that the majority of people who recognize many of Clara Schumman's works are not classical pianists by having the line that says "the vast majority of people who are not classical pianists do not"... recognize many of Clara Schumann's works. I didn't see how it would be possible to have the majority of people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works not being classical pianists if the stimulus says that the vast majority of people who are not classical pianists do not recognize her works. I do recognize that the wording here is different in the answer choice and the stimulus but I couldn't wrap my head around both being true.

I have read my response over a few times and am starting to think I may grasp why E is correct but want clarification. The vast majority of people who are not classical pianists is a very large group, while the majority of people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's work is probably a much smaller group. Therefore, while the majority of people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works may not be classical pianists and could still be included in the small number of non-classical pianists who do?

I'm sorry if my post is hard to follow.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Emily

[Adam Tyson]

Your analysis at the end of your post hits the nail on the head - it is music to my ears! To clarify, try this:

There are 100 billion people in the world (I have no idea what the world population actually is, just go with me on this).

There are only 1000 people that recognize Clara's works. Most of the people in the world don't.

There are only 10 classical pianists in the world, all of whom are in the above group of 1000.

So Claudette is much more likely to NOT be a classical pianist, despite being in the group that recognizes Clara's works, because most of those 1000 people are not in that group of 10.

I think you got it! Nice job.

[bk1111]

Can someone clarify why B is incorrect? I understand that E is the right answer; I almost interpret this as a Mistaken Reversal of a most statement, but I also understand the more nuanced explanation above. I am having a hard time eliminating B though...it might be mostly because I don't understand how it relates to the conclusion.

[James Finch]

Hi BK,

The problem with (B) is that the information it provides is ultimately irrelevant to the argument. The argument flows by arguing that because Claudette recognizes many of Clara Schumann's works, like most classical pianists but unlike the vast majority of non-classical pianists, it is highly likely that Claudette is a classical pianist. Whether people who have heard of Clara Schumann recognize her works doesn't matter, only whether the ratio of classical pianists to others that recognize Clara Schumann's work is such that we can conclude that Claudette is highly likely to be a classical pianist just because she recognizes many of Clara Schumann's works. We don't even know if Claudette has heard of Clara Schumann herself.

As Adam noted above, the problem with the argument is that it assumes the group sizes are such that the number of classical pianists is much larger than the number of people who aren't classical pianists but recognize many of Clara Schumann's work, which is possible but far from certain. So only answer choice (E) works.

Hope this helps!

[ihsan.ag]

I am having a hard time understanding this question. I guessed and got the answer right, but looking at the answer now I feel as if this contradicts what the author stated in the stimulus- many people who are not classical pianists have not even heard of Clara Schumann. I read the analysis of each answer choice above and am still confused. I am not even sure how to approach this question specifically although I am familiar with weaken questions.

Please help! Thank you!

[ihsan.ag]

I am having a hard time understanding this question. I guessed and got the answer right, but looking at the answer now I feel as if this contradicts what the author stated in the stimulus- many people who are not classical pianists have not even heard of Clara Schumann. I read the analysis of each answer choice above and am still confused. I am not even sure how to approach this question specifically although I am familiar with weaken questions.

Please help! Thank you!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi ihsan.ag,

Let's start small on this with your specific question about a contradiction. When the stimulus says, "many people who are not classical pianists have not even heard of Clara Schumann," it's not giving us a specific number. "Many" on the LSAT simply means a subjectively large number, which could be 25, 50, 100....it's uncertain. So "many" doesn't necessarily mean "most." So, going further, just because "many" non-classical pianists haven't heard of Clara Schumann doesn't exclude the possibility that answer choice E identifies, that a substantial number of non-classical pianists still could have heard of her and recognize many of her works.

To track what's going on in the stimulus (and the explanation), it's helpful to keep the "buckets" the stimulus identifies distinct from each other, and to identify what the stimulus says about those buckets. What are those buckets?

"Classical Pianists"

• Most (51%+) recognize many of Clara Schumann's works [meaning fewer than half do not recognize many of those works]

"Non-Classical Pianists"

• The vast majority ("vast" is non-specific, but it means well over 50%, let's say at least 75%) do not recognize many of Clara Schumann's works [meaning a significant minority, as many as 25%, could recognize many of Clara Schumann's works

• Many (a large number) have not even heard of Clara Schumann [meaning there could still be a large number who have heard of Clara Schumann]

One of the keys to unlocking this stimulus is that we don't know as an initial matter how many Classical Pianists there are (the absolute number), nor how many Non-Classical Pianists there are (the absolute number). If you assume, as the author of the stimulus seems to, that the absolute numbers of Classical and Non-Classical Pianists are roughly the same, then the conclusion gets closer to being valid. But if there were a LOT more Non-Classical Pianists than Classical Pianists, we can't really use the divisions the stimulus provides to make the conclusion the author of the stimulus reaches.

Let's use an example to make that point, with the absolute number of Classical Pianists set at 100, and the absolute number of Non-Classical Pianists set at 1,000,000:

Classical Pianists (100)

• At minimum, there must be 51 who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works

• At maximum, there are 49 who do not recognize many of Clara Schumann's works

Non-Classical Pianists (1,000,000):

• According to our rough assumptions above, at minimum there are 750,000 who do not recognize many of Clara Schumann's works

• This means there could be as many as 250,000 who DO recognize many of Clara Schumann's works

Now think about what we know about Claudette: she recognizes many of Clara Schumann's works. But since (under this hypothetical) there are VASTLY more people who are Non-Classical Pianists who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works, this means that (as a matter of probabilities) we could only conclude that it is likely Claudette is NOT a Classical Pianist.

The hypothetical I traced (which is consistent with the stimulus) is basically what answer choice E is raising as a possibility: that the majority of "recognizers" of Clara Schumann's works fall into the Non-Classical Pianist category.

I hope this helps!

[queenbee]

Amazing explanation - thank you for this