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LSAT Preptest 149, Section 1, Question 18

"If the standards committee has a quorum..."

Explanation

This is a formal logic question; the simplified conditions are as follows:

If standards has a quorum, then the assembly will meet at 6.
If awards has a quorum, then the assembly will meet at 7.

We are tasked with a response that follows these conditions.

A. This does not hold; there is no sufficient condition for the awards committee not having a quorum, this is adjacent to an inverse (mistaken negation) flaw.


B. This does not hold; there’s no reason to believe that one of these two conditions must occur. That would be an erroneous inference.


C. This is a straight converse (mistaken reversal) flaw; it uses a necessary condition to infer a sufficient condition.


D. This is a mix of B and C; it requires us to assume that the meeting must go at one of these two times and that if it goes at that time we can infer the quorum. Both are not supported


E. (Correct Response) This option uses the contrapositive. If the standards committee has a quorum then the meeting goes at 6. If the meeting goes at 6 then it doesn’t go at 7. If it doesn’t go at 7 then the awards committee does not have a quorum.

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