#14 - Waller: If there were really such a thing as

[Luke Haqq]

HI iarzir2020!

To see why (D) is correct for this question, it doesn't appear necessary to view Waller's argument as "advocating against the existence of ESP." Since this is a point at issue question, the best way to test and analyze whether it's the correct one is to put a letter for each author's name next to the answer choice, and ask whether the author would agree or disagree with the statement (here, we're asked for a point of disagreement rather than agreement):

W:
C:

The claim in answer choice (D) is, "the failure of the general public to believe in extrasensory perception is good evidence against its existence." This is different from actually arguing against its existence, and is rather saying that a certain source doesn't count as good evidence. Thus, we don't necessarily know that Waller is skeptical of the possibility of ESP (perhaps the author knows of other evidence of its existence), but we do know from the stimulus that Waller finds its lack of general acceptance by the public to be one piece of good evidence weighing against its existence. We can add this in:

W: Agree
C:

By contrast, we know from the stimulus that Chin considers the public to be "biased" in the direction of skepticism toward ESP. This author believes this is because of a close-minded cultural elite, which then informs popular media and public opinion. Chin would therefore disagree with the statement in (D), since Chin views the public's opinion on ESP to be biased and the product of close-mindedness. We can add this in as well:

W: Agree
C: Disagree

Since one of them would agree and the other would disagree with this statement in (D), we can conclude it is the correct answer.

[LSAT student]

I didn't catch that Waller is the skeptic here. I thought that Chin was the skeptic and Waller was arguing a case for the existence of ESP and Chin was arguing against ESP's existence. I ended up picking (B) here

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi LSATstudent,

Answer choice (B) here is very strong---we don't know how Waller feels about the potential of convincing ALL skeptics. We know what Chin thinks, but Waller's opinion there is unclear.

Let's break down what each person is saying.

Waller is saying that if there was ESP, the general public would accept the demonstrations.

Chin says that there are skeptics everywhere, so the fact that the general public doesn't accept ESP means nothing.

They disagree as the meaning of the fact that the public doesn't accept ESP. Waller says it's significant---if there was ESP, folks with it would be able to show it off, and the general public would accept it. Chin says skeptics keep everyone from accepting ESP, if it exists.

Hope that helps!

[frk215]

Hey folks! Thanks for the many explanations on this. I just want to confirm that the way I'm imagining b to be wrong is indeed correct.

Here's my thought process: I had originally chosen b instead of d because I figured walter would say yes about b, while chin would say no. The reason why I thought walter would say yes is because he says that if it did exist, it would be accepted by the public because people with those powers would be able to convince the general public. I assumed that public was an umbrella term, and skeptics fell under it. After all skeptics are people, why can't they be included?

But herein lies the issue: you can't conflate the two or interpret skeptics to be covered by the phrase general public. This requires an assumption beyond the basic definition, and so it goes too far. D on the other hand would get a clear yes and no from each speaker, without any assumptions. For walter, it's like hell yeah- if it existed, public would be convinced. Public isn't convinced, so it doesn't exist (basic contrapositive). For Chin, it's hell no- even if it existed, everything would be biased toward the view of skeptics who would be unconvinced no matter what. Public could be not convinced because of that bias!

Thanks for the help folks.

[Adam Tyson]

You got it, frk215! Waller can believe that the general public would believe in it, and at the same time believe that some skeptics would remain unconvinced. Those two ideas are not contradictory.

For example, the general public accepts that the Earth is basically round. It's a commonly accepted belief. But there are still some folks out there who think it's flat. What are you going to do, some people just can't be talked out from under their tin foil hats, right?

Nice work!