Counter-Premise Indicators - Example #1 - Prison

[oscarchi]

Hi,

Following is the example provided in Counter-premise Indicators in THE POWERSCORE LSAT LOGICAL REASONING BIBLE:

The United States prison population is the world's largest and consequently we must take steps to reduce crime in this country. Although other countries have higher rates of incarceration, their statistics have no bearing on the dilemma we currently face.

According to the explanation, as indicated by the word "although," the second sentence, which I've underlined above, offers up a counter-premise. To be precise, the counter-premise refers to the statement marked in red, "other countries have higher rates of incarceration," right? Then here comes my question: what role does the other part of the sentence, the statement marked in green, "their statistics have no bearing on the dilemma we currently face," play?

Based on the previous response from Dave, I suppose it's an additional premise, which is central to the conclusion. Is that the answer? If it is, then does it mean additional premises are not always attached with AP indicators, as what the sidebar points out on page-14, specifically for premises and conclusions? And BTW, what does "the dilemma" refer to in the context? Why do the statistics have no bearing on the dilemma the US currently faces?


Could you help me find out the answers, as well as some discussion and explanation for them?

Thanks a lot.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Oscar,

Let me first note that any premise or conclusion can be presented without an indicator. When I made that comment on page 14, "premise" referred to all types of premises (same for "conclusion"). The test makers have enormous latitude in argument construction, and there are multiple ways for them to achieve just about any goal they pursue

Going back to page 19, while the "dilemma" isn't defined within the argument (and it doesn't have to be for the purposes of the drill), it has to revolve around the large prison population and the problem of reducing crime. We'd need more information to determine why the statistics don't play a role.

Finally, the green portion can be seen as an additional premise, but it serves to downplay the counter-premise portion, and as such they run almost as a pair. That's why I chose not to go into further detail about this in the text (there's a point where the main idea about counter-premises gets lost in over-analysis!).

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!