#20 - Morton: In order to succeed in today’s society, one

[SwanQueen]

Is it a bit of a stretch on LSAT authors to equate "succeed in today's society" (sentence 1; premise) to "enough education to be truly successful" (last sentence; conclusion)?

I chose the correct answer choice by way of a process of elimination, and I could see how closely each of these sufficient conditions sounded. Can they be viewed as slightly different, or are they truly synonymous and just phrased differently?

[Frank Peter]

HI SwanQueen,

In flaw in the reasoning questions you are most certainly going to encounter some questionable logic. It sounds like you've identified the problem with this argument: the author assumes that true success must entail a college degree, and anything that looks like success isn't really success if the person doesn't have a college degree. The author is assuming what they set out to prove, which is what makes (A) the correct answer.

Can they be viewed as slightly different, or are they truly synonymous and just phrased differently?

I would say that the speaker in the stimulus views them as synonymous.

[Rosepose24]

Hi

Could you please explain why D is incorrect, first on its own terms.

Then, how I would eliminate it against A?

[evelineliu]

Hi Rose,

(D) is incorrect because Morton does consider the counterexamples: he looks at them and finds them lacking; they are only "apparent" counterexamples.

Compare the first two lines of Morton's speech (this is his conclusion) to the last two lines (the evidence, signaled by the word "since"). Morton simply repeats hi claim that success requires a college degree, but he does not provide independent evidence. This is circular logic, so (A) is the right answer.

Best,
Eveline

[AJITSHARMA880]

Hello,

This is how I did it, and I don't understand why A is correct.

Conclusion: The success of those people who never completed education beyond high school is only apparent

Evidence: Because without a college degree, a person does not have enough education to be truly successful

I understood there is a mismatch between the evidence, truly successful, and the conclusion, which is quite successful.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi AJITSHARMA,

This argument contains a very specific type of logical flaw known as circular reasoning. If you are unfamiliar with this flaw, it's a good idea to read up on it as it will help you understand exactly what is happening in this stimulus (and hopefully make this question much easier.)

Circular reasoning occurs when an argument tries to prove a conclusion by already assuming that the conclusion is true in one of the premises. In other words, a premise is identical in meaning to the conclusion. (Incidentally, circular reasoning shows up far more often as a wrong answer on the LSAT than as a correct answer. It is actually quite rare to see it as the correct answer, but this is one of the few times it does appear as the correct answer.)

Here, Morton's conclusion is that one must have a college degree to succeed. When skeptics try to disprove this claim by showing people who have succeeded without a college degree, Morton replies that their success isn't real success (it's "only apparent") because they don't have a college degree. In other words, Morton assumes that one needs a college degree to have real success, but that's the very conclusion that Morton is trying to prove.

Once you realize that the argument is circular, then it is simply a matter of finding the answer that describes circular reasoning, which Answer A does.

More information on common logical flaws, including circular reasoning, can be found in "The Logical Reasoning Bible" or in any PowerScore LSAT course.