#23 - Perception cannot be a relationship between a

[Jonathan Evans]

Jessica,

Great question! You did symbolize the conclusion correctly:

• Material Object Beliefs NONE from Perception

Your method of parsing out the structure of the argument is a valid approach, not to say this couldn't get you into trouble, for instance with a Mistaken Reversal™ that otherwise maintains the same syntax, but the bottom line is our job is to use all and any tools at our disposal to get the problems right in an efficient manner. Since you clearly have a pretty good grasp of conditional reasoning, you should be confident in your analysis.

Now, as outlined above, the premise doesn't exactly conform to a tidy conditional flaw. Just to summarize, this author argues:

• Conclusion: If we have material object beliefs, these beliefs are not from perception.
• Why not? Because we have beliefs about material objects that cannot be the result of perception.

In other words, the author is trying to say, "it can't be possible for us to have material object beliefs from perception if we have any material object beliefs that are not from perception."

Thus, this is similar to starting with ~P but not exactly the same, because the ~P in the necessary condition of the conclusion is about material object beliefs in general and not beliefs about the imperceptible material objects.

The author's intended argument would look like this:

1. Material Object Beliefs ALL from Perception OR NONE from Perception
2. There exist Material Object Beliefs not from Perception.
3. Therefore, Material Object Beliefs NONE from Perception.

But as we noted, the author's argument as written omitted Statement 1 above:

1. (Furiously waves hands! Do not look behind the curtain!)
2. There exist Material Object Beliefs not from Perception.
3. Therefore, Material Object Beliefs NONE from Perception.

The omission of this essential premise is the flaw.

[LSATstudent123]

Thank you so much for these incredibly helpful responses! I am having a hard time seeing why to pick (c) over (a). They both appear to look the same when diagrammed.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi LSATstudent

You wouldn't pick answer choice (C) here because the correct answer choice is answer choice (A). Answer choice (C) is a different type of flaw---it's saying because there are SOME problems that cannot be solved by preparation, preparation can't be an attempt to minimize the problems. Did you mean to ask why answer choice (C) was wrong? Please feel free to post again clarifying your question and thought process.