#7 - All zebras have stripes, and the most widespread

[Adam Tyson]

The causal language is very subtle here, gen2871, and many students overlook it. Causal reasoning is present whenever there is some sort of action going on, whereby something is said to make something else happen. In this case, the causality is indicated in this language:

they must serve as some sort of signal for other zebras

We interpret that to be active, in that the stripes are sending signals, an active concept. This is different from a more passive relationship like what we see in a conditional statement - if not X, then Y.

Your conditional approach to the stimulus is understandable, because the author is saying something along the lines of "if the stripes are not camouflage then they must be sending signals," but that is only part of the picture. Every causal claim has a conditional claim built into it - IF the cause occurs, THEN the effect must also occur - but that doesn't mean we should ignore the causal aspect and focus exclusively on the conditionality. Just the opposite, in fact - when a causal claim arises from a conditional relationship, we typically find that focusing on the causality is the more fruitful approach to answering the question.

Now as to answer choice C, it does indeed have to do with visual cues given by one animal to another, but does it strengthen that a zebra's stripes send such signals? What would it matter that some other species - a lizard, perhaps, or a fish - can send a message to another of its kind by briefly changing color? How does this help us dome to accept the claim about zebras? I can also send a visual signal to another human by waving at them, but that doesn't do anything to support the claim about a zebra's stripes, does it? We know that signals can be visual - that's the sort of common sense knowledge that we are allowed to bring to the test - but that isn't very helpful to the claim about this specific type of visual signal in this specific group of animals. Besides, answer D, being about zebras and their stripes, is much better, and we are asked to pick the best answer and not merely one that might work!

I hope that clarifies the causal issue for you. Let us know if you need more info!

[gen2871]

Yes!!!!! I got it!! thank you, Mr. Tyson!!!!!

[gen2871]

Hi Mr. Tyson,

Thank you for the excellent reply. I think I just had a breakthrough!
You mendtioned that "In fact - when a causal claim arises from a conditional relationship, we typically find that focusing on the causality is the more fruitful approach to answering the question."

So I encountered another question earlier today from [33-3-24], and the conclusion goes: "if you want to be healthier without cutting fat intake, drink more red wine."

According to the conditionality, the diagram will be "Healthier drink more red wine".
but because the undertone is actually red wine causes healthier, the diagram will be better drawn as "wine health", EVEN THOUGH it is the opposite of the straight interpretation based on the sufficient/necessary indicators (if...then...). Correct? Since this is a weaken question, once we have the diagram out, then all we gotta do is to show that wine does not necessarily lead to health, hence mission accomplished!

I couldn't tell you how excited I am right now even though this is such a novel improvement compared with the amount of techniques and skills I need to acquire to do well on LSAT.

Thank you sooooooooo very much, Mr. Tyson. This really means the world to me!

[Adam Tyson]

Awesome! Happy to help. I am a genius, but it's supposed to be a secret. Don't tell!

(and call me Adam)

[gen2871]

lol. Yes Sir!

[whardy21]

Can you please explain why C is incorrect. Thanks.

[Malila Robinson]

Hi whardy21,
The stimulus does not say that there is any sort of temporary color change going on so Answer C is irrelevant to the argument.
Hope that helps!
-Malila

[trashpanda]

Hi! I am also curious as to the specific reason C is incorrect. When I was going through the answers, I was torn between C and D since both refer to visual signaling in some form. Is C wrong because it doesn't provide any reason why the signal is of importance to the zebras (which is mentioned in the conclusion)? Thanks!

[KelseyWoods]

Hi trashpanda!

Answer choice (C) talks about a "temporary change of color." Zebra stripes are not a temporary color change--they're pretty permanent! Thus, answer choice (C) is not relevant to an argument about why zebras have stripes.

That's probably the biggest problem with (C), but, yes, (C) also has other problems. Even if (C) said "A visual signal transmitted among the members of a species can consist of stripes perceptible to other members of the species," it wouldn't be very helpful to our argument. The premises tells us that zebras have stripes, but they don't tell us that other zebras can perceive these stripes. So answer choice (C) being true wouldn't necessarily tell us that the stripes constitute a visual signal. And even if we had an answer choice that told us stripes could be a visual signal, that still wouldn't be all that useful to whether or not this visual signal would be the reason why zebras have stripes because it wouldn't tell us what the use of this visual signal would be.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[lsatquestions]

Hi Adam,

I didn't think about the camouflaging part of the stimulus when I incorrectly selected A. I read the AC to mean that the stripes signaled cues to other zebras about health & strength, i.e. for mating. Can you please explain why that reasoning is incorrect?