#2 - Artist: Almost everyone in this country really wants to

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning. The correct answer choice is (D)

The artist quoted here provides the conclusion of the argument in the first sentence of the stimulus:
Almost everyone in the country wants to be some sort of artist, regardless of what they might do to
pay their bills. In support of this conclusion the author provides the fact that almost everyone he or
she knows wants to be some sort of artist—a painter, or musician, or a poet—regardless of what they
might do for work. The argument basically breaks down as follows:

• Artist’s premise: Almost everyone I know wants to be an artist, regardless of what they
  do in their current job.
  
  Artist’s conclusion: Therefore almost everyone in this country really wants to become an
  artist.

If you didn’t happen to notice the flawed reasoning in the argument above, the question stem that
follows the stimulus makes it clear that a flaw is indeed present. The problem with the artist’s logic,
of course, is that a conclusion about the entire country’s population is based on a premise involving
one artist’s acquaintances. That is, we are provided with no reason to believe that this artist’s friends
provide a representative sample from which to draw reliable conclusions about the country’s entire
population.

Answer choice (A): This answer choice describes circular reasoning, which would actually describe
an argument more along these lines: Almost everyone I know really wants to be an artist, so I
conclude that almost all of the people I know really want to become artists. Since the artist’s premise
and conclusion are not same in the stimulus, so this is answer choice does not accurately characterize
the flaw in the author’s reasoning.

Answer choice (B): This answer choice might look appealing at first, but it is incorrect, because
this answer actually describes a different flaw—that of ascribing individuals’ attributes to an entire
country. The artist does not claim to know each person in the country, but instead is presuming that
what’s true of almost everyone the artist knows is true of everyone in the country. This is different
from the flaw provided in this answer choice—presuming that what is true of each individual person
is true of the population as a whole.

Answer choice (C): The artist’s statements are about people’s aspirations to become artists, not
widely held beliefs. The artist didn’t say “most people believe that everyone wants to be an artist, so
it must be true.” Rather, the artist said “most people I know want to be an artist, so most people in
the world must want to be an artist.”

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice; as discussed above, the author’s
conclusions are based on a sample that does not seem to be representative of the population as a
whole.

Answer choice (E): First of all, the author does distinguish between wanting to be an artist and doing
something else for a living. Second, the distinction between wanting to be an artist and making a
living at it is not needed—it’s not even relevant—to the author’s conclusion that almost everyone
wants to be an artist of some sort.

[lsatstudent99966]

I almost changed my answer to (E) during my blind review.

I thought this argument had another weird problem other than an “unrepresentative sample.”

The EVIDENCE here is that people who currently work as dishwashers or discount store clerks want to MAKE A LIVING as an artist. (To me, that sounds like saying that not only do they want to become an artist, but they also expect the job of “artist” to become their income source. So they don’t plan to work another side job besides artist.”)

But the CONCLUSION here is: Almost everyone in this country really wants to be an artist, EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY HAVE TO WORK OTHER JOBS TO PAY THE RENT. (To me, that sounds like saying they want to become an artist even if this job doesn’t allow them to MAKE A LIVING. They’d be happy to work another job to earn enough money to pay rent.)
And I feel like there’s certainly a problem with the link between the EVIDENCE and CONCLUSION here. Some people might want to be an artist if that alone can allow them to survive, but I think it is very possible that they would just abandon the idea of being an artist if they still have to spend their energy on another job to survive.

I mean, isn't it reasonable to think that many people have a dream of being an artist, but the fact that they can't make a living with that job (so they'd have multiple jobs) is enough for them to give up the dream?

And in fact, the author's friends seem exactly like those people who only want to be artists if they can make a living at it? (Otherwise, they'd probably be artists already?) 


The only thing stopping me from picking (E) eventually is that it only says “fails to make a distinction between wanting to be an artist and making a living as an artist.” If (E) instead said “fails to make a distinction between wanting to be an artist EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY HAVE TO WORK OTHER JOBS TO PAY THE RENT and making a living as an artist,” then I might just choose (E) instead…

[Adam Tyson]

You're overlooking a crucial part of the evidence, 99966: it's not that everyone currently working those other jobs wants to make a living as an artist. It's that everyone the author knows wants to do that. And if those people want to make a living as an artist, that also means they want to be artists, so there's no need to make that distinction. It's already built-in to the desire to make a living in that way.

If I want to make a living as a nurse, then I want to be a nurse.

If I want to make a living as a plumber, then I want to be a plumber.

Etc.

Now, if the evidence had been that they want to be artists, and the conclusion was that they want to make a living that way, then we would have a problem with that distinction. People might want to be artists as a hobby, or as a supplement to their other sources of income, or just do it for free. But this argument has it the other way around: the evidence is they want to make a living as artists, and the conclusion is that they want to be artists. That's not wrong. But the unrepresentative sample, based only on the people this artist knows, is what makes the conclusion invalid.