All too many weaklings are also cowards, and few cowards fail to be fools. Thus there must be at least one person wh...

Naz July 24, 2013

We first need to decide what quantifier represents "all too many." Remember, "some" means at least one, possibly all. "All too many" is the same as "many," and we know that "many" can be represented by "some." So we can diagram the first sentence as:

W-some-C or C-some-W

The phrase "few fail to" is a little tricky. Think about who the speaker is tying to target when the he says "few cowards fail to be fools." The speaker is trying to focus your attention on those who are fools, rather than the minority that aren't. So a few cowards are not fools, implies that at least one coward is a fool (and actually probably more than at least one because it says "few aren't.") Thus, it's more efficient for us to diagram the second sentence as:

C-some-F or F-some-C

Remember, you can technically diagram it out as both C-some-F and C-some-not F, but C-some-F is what helps us with this argument. So with these two quantifier sentences, the speaker concludes that some people who are weaklings are also fools.

W-some-F

What the speaker incorrectly attempts to do here is use the transitive property to connect the two sentences: W-some-C-some-F to become W-some-F. But, you cannot connect quantifiers with the transitive property. So we must find the answer choice that also attempts to do this.

Answer choice (C) is diagrammed:

Some painters are musicians

P-some-M or M-some-P

Some musicians are dancers

M-some-D or D-some-M

Therefore, some painters are dancers

P-some-D or D-some-P

Here answer choice (C), just as in the argument, tries to connect M-some-P with P-some-D through the transitive property: M-some-P-some-D. But, you cannot connect quantifier sentences through the transitive property.

Therefore, choice (C) is the correct answer.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Mehran July 28, 2013

The video explanation for this question is now live inside of LSATMax as well.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

TheFacu April 6, 2015

If u fail to be a fool isnt that not a fool?

Naz April 13, 2015

Please refer to the above thread for an explanation to your question.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

a42 February 4, 2018

This explanation still doesn't make sense to me. Isn't "few cowards fail to be fools" the same as "most cowards are fools"??

Mehran February 4, 2018

Thanks for your post. No, "few cowards fail to be fools" is not specific enough for us to assume that most cowards are fools. It is only enough for us to know that at least some cowards are fools. Remember: "most" implies more than half. We cannot be certain that this threshold has been reached. But we can be certain that some (at least one) cowards are fools.

Hope this helps.