Common Loopholes

Question 1

Dangling Variable

Answer 1

-new words appearing in the conclusion and not the premises. There is no such thing as ‘basically the same’ on the LSAT.
-the word introduced in the conclusion will often be more general than that in the premises.
-common

Question 2

Secret Value Judgements

Answer 2

-author makes moral judgements in the conclusion without defining what the criteria for making the moral judgement are in the premises.

Ctxt: A fundamental illusion in robotics is the belief that improvements in robots will liberate humanity from ‘hazardous and demeaning work.’
P1: engineers design robots that are maintained by lest expensive, last skilled human labor possible.
C: Robots will not eliminate demeaning work, only substitute one kind for another.
-assumes that least expensive, least skilled work is demeaning.

-super common

Question 3

Secret Downsides

Answer 3

-author says one of two things is superior based on the benefits of thing A. The author neglects that thing A may have downsides that thing B may not have, or that thing B may have some other important upsides.
-super common

Question 4

Assumed Universal Goals

Answer 4

-the author appeals to something that she assumes everyone would want. Making money, losing weight, being successful, etc.
-“what if they don’t want [assumed universal goal]?”