LSAT 111 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q24

LR Question 24 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: In every case of political unrest in a certain country…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Parallel Reasoning

CONCLUSION: The same mastermind must have been behind every single case of political unrest.

REASONING: The police have found that at least one person organized each individual case of political unrest.

ANALYSIS: The police have shown that each event had an organizer. But that doesn’t mean that every event had the same organizer.

This is a really strange argument.

___________

1. I haven’t run through the math to be sure about this argument. We’d at least have to know if Chicago used all possible numbers. In any case, this doesn’t repeat the “single cause” flaw from the stimulus.
2. This is a bad argument because it ignores the fact that two numbers can have the same area code. But this error assumes that everything must be different. The stimulus assumed that everything had to be the same.
3. CORRECT. This is an odd argument and it matches the structure. Every citizen has a number so they must all have the same number. What a funny idea: there’s no reason citizens couldn’t have different numbers. 
4. This is a terrible argument. It ignores the fact that many insignificant events can count as a significant event if you add them together. But this is not like the “single cause” flaw from the stimulus. 
5. This is actually a good argument. It didn’t say that every moment has been followed by a later moment so far. It just said it will always happen. So Vlad is immortal.