University:
The University of Pittsburgh
Course:
LSAT | Prep Course
Academic year:

2024
Views:

252

Pages:

2
Author:

mns81

LSAT PREP Sage Training – Week 2 Conditional Logic Conditional Logic:     Very important for understanding logical reasoning. How humans make arguments daily. o Example:  He agreed to get us a table if he arrives first.  If I increase my LSAT score by a handful of points, I’ll be able to go to law school for free. What is a conditional statement? o If, then statements.  Example:  If you drink poisonthen you will get sick. o If clause – sufficient condition. o Then clause – necessary condition. When we take the statements if A – B o If A then B Universal Quantifiers:  Relationships, type between sufficient and necessary conditions.  Conditional logic is a language, used to aid our understanding of abstract ideas. o If A then B o Contrapositive: if not B then A Sufficient Conditions:  If clause  Sufficient because it’s enough to guarantee that the then clause will happen.  Don’t need more to know it’s true. o Take it at its work on the LSAT. o Don’t use outside knowledge.  Guarantees that the necessary condition will occur.  Sufficient = enough to require the other part  Precipitates the occurrence or truth of something else.  Key Words: If, When, Where, Any, All, The Only, Every. Example:  If the sunspots continue to grow, then we will lose all our crops this year.  If the car costs more than $2000 don’t buy it with cash. Necessary Conditions:  The then clause. It is necessary.  If you try to reverse it, it is not true.  Don’t confuse sufficient and necessary, but it can happen.  Required for sufficient condition to be true.  Key Words: Then, Only, Only if, Must, Only When, Only Where, Always. Example:  If you get sick,we can’t say for sure you drank the poison. Contrapositives:  Flip and negation of our original statement. o A – B turns into Not B – Not A  If A then B turns into If not B then Not A. Modus Ponens:  Premise 1: A – B  Premise 2: A  Valid Inference: B  If you have a conditional on one premise and another that hey saysI have:” “ my sufficient condition then you can validly conclude you have your necessary condition. Modus Tollens:  Premise 1: A – B  Premise 2: Not B  Valid Inference: Not A  If you have a conditional on one premise and another premise that “I says don’t’ have the necessary condition then you can validly conclude you don’t have the sufficient condition.  Both Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens guarantee the necessary condition Comparative Questions:  More and less statements  Comparing two of the same things in point in time Example:  Justin has two times more roommates than Marcus. And Justin’s house is 50% the size of Marcus’s house. o Can say: Justin’s roommates per room ration is higher than Marcus’s. Causation:  When you have two entities A + B.  Direct chains, something is directly causing something else to occur, and your effect obviously has to happen after your cause.