PrepTest 159, Section 1, Question 15
Faculty member: The university's financially minded president holds(70 more words not shown)
The faculty member's argument is(7 more words not shown)
- Aargues for a(10 more words not shown)
- Bappeals to popular(5 more words not shown)
- Ctreats merely analogous(3 more words not shown)
- Dimproperly attacks the(4 more words not shown)
- Erejects a view(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
An unpopular program could still serve an important educational purpose. Imagine few students want chemistry classes. Whether the university should eliminate chemistry might depend on what kind of education it aims to provide, not just on current demand.
A specialized business college and a university offering a broad education could reasonably see that program differently. The president's appeal to consumer demand doesn't settle those questions for me.
There is also a difference between what students want and what helps them learn. Imagine students who prefer watching explanations to doing practice questions. Their preference alone doesn't show that watching more explanations is the right educational choice. So I can understand the faculty member's resistance to treating education exactly like supplying whatever customers request.
But now the faculty member goes further: because the analogy fails, the president's conclusion must be wrong. Why? A bad reason for a position doesn't establish that the position is false. Perhaps there is a different, good reason to tailor some programs to demand. We haven't ruled that out by criticizing this analogy.
What we’re looking for
That's the flaw to look for. The faculty member has challenged the president's support, then treated that challenge as enough to reject the president's view itself.
Working the answers
- A
The faculty member does address the president's opposing argument, objecting to its comparison between education and consumer goods. The problem isn't simply that an opposing argument went unanswered. It's that attacking its reasoning is treated as proof that the opposite position is correct.
- B
Student demand appears in the president's reasoning, but the faculty member doesn't appeal to what most people believe to establish the conclusion. The faculty member asserts that the analogy fails. Don't mistake discussing a popularity-based proposal for using popular opinion as one's own support.
- C
The faculty member rejects a comparison; the faculty member doesn't treat the things being compared as identical. This answer points toward the president's use of a business model while we're evaluating the response to that model.
- D
Calling the president financially minded doesn't supply the argument against the proposal. The faculty member challenges a comparison in the president's reasoning, not the president's honesty or moral character. We need to identify the mistake in that reasoning-based objection.
- ECorrect
The faculty member rejects the view because the president has supplied an inadequate reason for it. But there is a difference between “Your analogy doesn't prove that programs should follow demand” and “Programs should not follow demand.” The first leaves the policy question unresolved. Reaching the second requires more than showing that one offered argument is unsuccessful.
More Flaw questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Flaw questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.