Week 1: Intro to Logical Reasoning

Question 1

13+ Question Types and 3 Families

(List the 4 families and all question types)

Answer 1

Family #1: Prove

1. MBT
2. MP
3. Point At Issue / Agreement
4. Method of Reasoning (& AP)
5. Flaw
6. Parallel (& Parallel Flaw)

Family #2: Help

4. Nec. Assumption
5. Suff. Assumption (Justify Conclusion)
6. Strengthen
7. Resolve Paradox

Family #3: Hurt

8. Weaken

Family #4: Disprove

13. Cannot Be True

Family #2/3

12. Evaluate

Lastly, Principle questions

LSAT Lab: every argument that falls under assumption family, is invalid: you’re goal is to find the gap.

Question 2

LR Section divided into 3 parts:

Answer 2

Easy (1/3)

• should be answer most questions based on intuition, knowledge of the real world.

Medium (1/3)

• still answer questions mostly based on intuition.
• have to be able to identify trap answer choices (to eliminate them).
• Trap Answers: fall into 3 basic categories:
  • Scope (e.g. out of scope, half scope)
  • Logic (e.g. mistaken negation / reversal)
  • Degree (e.g. Too Strong / Too Weak)

Hard (1/3)

• not only are there trap answer choices, but ALSO hard-to-understand passages.
• have to be able to 1 identify trap answer choices and 2 use reasoning structures (to simplify dense arg’s):
• 3 Main Reasoning Structures (not exhaustive):
  • Conditional (A → B, B → C … A → C)
  • Causal (A ⊃ B, B ⊃ C … A ⊃ C)
    • Remember, causality is stronger to conditionality. Causality implies conditionality, but conditionality does not imply causality. In Causality, one variable is responsible for another, but in conditionality one event is correlational with another.
  • Comparative (A < B, B < C … A < C)