#20 - Morton: In order to succeed in today’s society, one

[SwanQueen]

Is it a bit of a stretch on LSAT authors to equate "succeed in today's society" (sentence 1; premise) to "enough education to be truly successful" (last sentence; conclusion)?

I chose the correct answer choice by way of a process of elimination, and I could see how closely each of these sufficient conditions sounded. Can they be viewed as slightly different, or are they truly synonymous and just phrased differently?

[Frank Peter]

HI SwanQueen,

In flaw in the reasoning questions you are most certainly going to encounter some questionable logic. It sounds like you've identified the problem with this argument: the author assumes that true success must entail a college degree, and anything that looks like success isn't really success if the person doesn't have a college degree. The author is assuming what they set out to prove, which is what makes (A) the correct answer.

Can they be viewed as slightly different, or are they truly synonymous and just phrased differently?

I would say that the speaker in the stimulus views them as synonymous.

[Rosepose24]

Hi

Could you please explain why D is incorrect, first on its own terms.

Then, how I would eliminate it against A?

[evelineliu]

Hi Rose,

(D) is incorrect because Morton does consider the counterexamples: he looks at them and finds them lacking; they are only "apparent" counterexamples.

Compare the first two lines of Morton's speech (this is his conclusion) to the last two lines (the evidence, signaled by the word "since"). Morton simply repeats hi claim that success requires a college degree, but he does not provide independent evidence. This is circular logic, so (A) is the right answer.

Best,
Eveline