June 2010 LSAT Section 5 Question 18

Based on the passage, it can be concluded that the author and Broyles-González hold essentially the same attitude toward

AndrewDavis on May 17, 2018

reversing most statements to some

I am unclear to how most statements are reversible if you turn them into some statements. Doesn't it change the meaning of the statement. Because you say that Most As are Bs but cannot conclude that most Bs are As. Its not reversible. However you say you can change the most to some to reverse it when talking about the statement -- Some of the people who attended Harvard Law School are currently Supreme Court Justices. Some could be one to all but Most is greater than 50%. Also example #2 in making valid deductions with quantifiers T- most -S is reversed despite it is a most statement to some to conclude S some R. How is it logically possible to convert a most to some?

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Anita on May 18, 2018

Most/some can be tricky. Let's look at the Supreme Court example. Let's say for practice's sake that most Supreme Court Justices went to Harvard Law. We then know that at least some people who went to Harvard Law are on the Supreme Court. It doesn't mean exactly the same thing, because if we were just presented with the second statement, we could not conclude the first, only that at least some Supreme Court Justices went to Harvard.

Some can be reversed to some and keep its meaning. Most, when reversed to some, still creates a valid statement. That's what is meant by reversing it.

Let's try one more example. Say we know candidate X got most votes from Washington voters. We then know at least some Washington voters voted for candidate X.

Does that help at all, @AndrewDavis?

AndrewDavis on May 19, 2018

It helps thanks.