December 2007 LSAT Section 1 Question 22

Doctor: Being overweight has long been linked with a variety of health problems, such as high blood pressure and hea...

AndrewArabie on July 1, 2023

Relative to absolute flaw

There are a few later questions that exhibit this flaw that get me every time. I got this one right because I ruled out all the other answers but I also ruled out E because it sounded the argument to me read like it was sticking in relative terms the whole time. I was between D and E and eventually could explain why D was wrong, but I had no idea why I should choose E. Are there any general tips to spot this flaw that I can keep in mind?

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Emil-Kunkin on July 6, 2023

Good question, and while process of elimination isn't the ideal approach at least it's a solid fallback.

I think this starts in the passage itself, long before we get to any answer choices. I would probably start with the conclusion that being slightly overweight is enough to be healthy.

On the surface, this seems like a pretty dumb statement, made dumber by the fact that the reasoning is that slightly over is better than way under. To pull out an analogy, this is like saying that overthrowing your receivers a bit is ok if you want to be a great QB, because it's better than wildly under throwing them. Obviously in both cases the author is ignoring the fact that it would be overall better to be a healthy weight/ hit your targets. The author hasn't given any reason to think that slightly over is good, just that there are worse things.

While I wouldn't have called this a relative to absolute flaw, I guess that's a decent description of it. Ultimately the issue here is that the conclusion is insanely strong given the weak evidence we have for it, but more specifically I suppose it is that the only proof given was that one thing is less bad than others. I think when you have a conclusion that feels way to strong, take a look to see if the reason it feels strong is because it is taking an absolute stance about something that was only relative.

AndrewArabie on July 6, 2023

Thank you Emil. I spotted the flaw but I didn't know how to describe it. I was looking for something that was like "concludes something is desirable because it's more desirable than something far less desirable." I see now how it can be characterized as a relative to absolute flaw because being slightly over weight is relatively desirable to being dramatically underweight but that doesn't mean in absolute terms you're healthy. However, I'm not sure I could get this without a heads up.

Emil-Kunkin on July 6, 2023

I think this is a good reminder to keep a somewhat open mind for how they describe flaws. I often have a strong articulation of the flaw, and then the right answer is a wildly different way at describing the same general problem.