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Question

Difficulty: HardAd Hominem (Source Argument)

Political Commentator: Senator Harland has proposed a comprehensive tax reform bill that she argues will significantly reduce the tax burden on middle-class families. But we should not take her argument seriously. Senator Harland is a wealthy real estate developer, and her proposed legislation includes several complex provisions that would financially benefit the commercial real estate industry. It is obvious, then, that her tax reform bill will not actually reduce the tax burden on middle-class families.

The reasoning in the political commentator's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument:

  1. A
    criticizes the moral character of the senator instead of evaluating the evidence she provides for her position
  2. B
    presumes, without providing justification, that what is true of specific provisions within the legislation must be true of the legislation as a whole
  3. infers that a claim is false based solely on the observation that the proponent of the claim stands to benefit if it is acceptedAnswer
  4. D
    attempts to weaken the senator's argument by directly contradicting the explicitly stated premises upon which she relies
  5. E
    takes for granted that the complex provisions in the legislation were caused by the senator's background in real estate

Answer

The correct answer is the option stating that the argument infers that a claim is false based solely on the observation that the proponent of the claim stands to benefit if it is accepted.
The commentator's argument is fundamentally flawed because it dismisses Senator Harland's claim about middle-class tax relief simply because she has a financial motive to pass the bill. The argument fails to consider the possibility that the bill could simultaneously benefit both the real estate industry and middle-class families. By rejecting a claim based entirely on the source's vested interests rather than the logical merits of the claim itself, the argument commits a classic circumstantial ad hominem fallacy.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the political commentator's argument structure to identify the premises and the main conclusion.
Premise: Senator Harland claims her bill reduces the middle-class tax burden, but she is a real estate developer and the bill benefits her industry. Conclusion: Harland's claim about the middle class is definitively false.
Isolating the conclusion and the evidence provided is the first step in identifying logical flaws in any argument.
2
Evaluate the relationship between the premises and the conclusion to identify the logical gap.
The commentator uses Harland's financial motives (benefiting the real estate industry) as the sole justification for concluding that her factual claim about the middle-class tax burden must be incorrect.
Understanding how the premises fail to support the conclusion reveals the specific type of logical fallacy being committed.
3
Match the identified flaw with standard logical fallacy categories.
The argument commits a Source Argument (Ad Hominem) flaw, specifically a circumstantial ad hominem, because it attacks the motives and vested interests of the speaker rather than addressing the substance of the speaker's claim.
LSAT flaw questions require recognizing the abstract description of common logical fallacies.
4
Evaluate the answer choices to find the one that accurately and abstractly describes this source-based flaw.
The option describing an inference that a claim is false based solely on the proponent's potential benefit perfectly matches the circumstantial ad hominem flaw identified.
The correct answer must accurately describe the flaw exactly as it occurs in the specific stimulus.

Key Concept

Ad Hominem (Circumstantial/Source Argument) Flaw
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Topics

Ad Hominem (Source Argument)

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