June 2007 LSAT Section 2 Question 22

Editorialist: News media rarely cover local politics thoroughly, and local political business is usually conducted s...

huntertarry on August 17, 2022

Causal vs Conditional Language

What are some tips in distinguishing between causal and conditional language? Sometimes I don’t know whether to diagram S&N from language that doesn’t explicitly have “each, all, only, when, etc.” Thank you :)

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Emil-Kunkin on August 21, 2022

Hi Huntertarry,

Conditional language sets up a general rule- something that is saying in effect "If X then Y." Whenever we have a situation that fits the pattern of "if x then y" we have a conditional statement.

Causation is simply saying that one thing causes another to happen. Confusingly, we could have a causal statement phrased in such a way that it is also conditional. For example, whenever the temperature falls below freezing, it cases the lake to freeze. This fits the pattern of if x then y, and it is telling us that X causes y.

Ultimately I think it is less important to have perfect diagram of every question, than it is to fully understand what you read. If you read something that sets up a scenario where one thing guarantees than another will or will not happen, that is conditional, and if it claims that one thing causes another, it is causal.