October 2010 LSAT Section 3 Question 3

Commentator: If a political administration is both economically successful and successful at protecting individual li...

Dalaal on February 20, 2020

Question 6 in the video lesson

I had considered the first statement to be the conclusion despite it being a generalization. Can generalizations be conclusions or are they only supporting premises? Can they be subsidiary conclusions? I ask because I considered the conclusion in question 7 to be a generalization despite it point the role of a conclusion. How do I tell the difference? Another question relating to question 9: what role do phenomenons play? Are they premises? How can I tell if a statement is a phenomenon?

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SamA on February 20, 2020

Hello @Dalaal,

I would argue that the first sentence of question 6 is both a generalization and a sub-conclusion. I believe that it qualifies as a sub-conclusion because it has a premise in support of it, which is the August Frenson example. A single example may be weak support, but it is support nonetheless. The first sentence is not the main conclusion, because it is meant to support the last sentence.

Main conclusion: If such measures are to be enacted, they must be put to a popular vote.
Why?
Sub-conclusion: Because few politicians will support legislation that conflicts with their own self-interest.

As for question 7, I suppose you could describe the conclusion as a generalization. However, I would't spend time thinking about it. Don't worry so much about what is a generalization and what isn't, unless that word shows up in the answer choices. You need to focus more on the argument structure. Which sentence supports which? This is how we identify premises and conclusions.

I am not seeing a question 9 in the argument structure video, but I can still answer this question. A phenomenon is just an event. It is something that occurs. It is usually a fact, not a conclusion. The conclusion will appear when someone tries to explain said phenomenon. This happens often in stimuli with a scientist or a researcher. Their hypothesis is the conclusion.

Phenomenon: The population of sparrows in my yard has dropped 50% in the last month.
Premise: Last month, my neighbors bought a new cat.
Hypothesis/Conclusion: The cat is probably eating the sparrows in my yard.

The phenomenon is not something that we try to dispute. We take it as fact. The attempt at an explanation is the conclusion.