December 2015 LSAT Section 2 Question 14

Activist: Medical conditions such as cancer and birth defects have been linked to pollutants in water. Organic pollut...

ctb4 on August 8, 2020

Answer A vs C

Hello, I had this question narrowed down between A and C. What convinced me to choose C was that I felt that A was worded too strongly. What is the difference between these two answers? Thank you!

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shunhe on August 10, 2020

Hi @ctb4,

Thanks for the question! So (A) is telling us that the argument fails to consider the possibility that a significant number of occurrences of cancer and birth defects might be caused by preventable factors other than industrial pollutants. In other words, the flaw is that the argument doesn’t realize there could be other things that cause cancers/birth defects.

(C), on the other hand, tells us that the flaw is that the argument takes for granted (assumes) that certain effects can be produced independently by several different causes. In other words, the flaw is that the argument assumes that the effects (of cancer/birth defects) can be produced by different causes! That’s the opposite of what (A) is saying. (C) isn’t the flaw in the argument, (C) is what the argument fails to do! The argument doesn’t assume this, it completely ignores the possibility. And that’s why (A) is right and (C) isn’t.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

ctb4 on August 10, 2020

That definitely clears up my confusion. Thank you!

shunhe on August 11, 2020

Glad it helped, no problem!