LSAT 133 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q2

LR Question 2 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Artist: Almost everyone in this country really wants to…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: The artist says that almost everyone in the country wants to be an artist.

REASONING: Almost everyone the artist knows wants to be an artist.

ANALYSIS: This is a terrible argument. Artists tend to be friends with other artists. Engineers tend to be friends with engineers. And so on. The artist is working from a very unrepresentative sample.

If you want to find out what the whole country believes then you shouldn’t just ask your friends. Your friends probably have opinions similar to yours.

___________

1. This isn’t circular reasoning. The artist’s evidence about the whole country is (poorly) supported by their evidence about their friends.
2. Not quite. The artist is assuming that what is true of their friends must be true of the whole country.
3. The artist only mentions what they think their friends want to do for a job. They haven’t said any beliefs are widely held.
4. CORRECT. The artist should interview people they aren’t friends with. It’s highly unlikely everyone wants to be an artist and much more likely that the artist’s friends are an unrepresentative sample.
5. Actually the distinction is clear: someone can want to be an artist while working as a dishwasher. Yet they aspire to actually make a living from their art.