Question #1582

How to diagram "few"?

Started by NativeJustice · started 2018-04-30 00:03 · last activity 2022-01-19 10:08 · 6 replies

I have a question, in the question, it says "few cowards fail to be fools". I subsequently diagramed this relation as C -most- F. But in the video, it diagramed as "C -some- F". I agree with video in terms that few...are not, actually means there are... but I think it should me diagramed as most, instead of some. This distinction is important, I think, for it might be able to let me draw some further inference.

Replies

  1. katia · 2018-05-26 21:30

    Also looking for an answer to this question ^

  2. Anita · 2018-05-28 22:30

    @NativeJustice I read both as "some" (some weaklings are cowards, some cowards are fools.) Unless they indicate that it is definitely a majority, it's best to read that as some.

  3. jcj2433 · 2021-10-13 16:32

    @Anita I'm still lacking clarity. The LSAT is often written to trick us into making wrong choices. In fact, Mehran says in one of the opening lessons, " The LSAT writers do not like you. They are trying to trick you." In this instance, "few cowards fail to be fools," appeared to be a trap to me. Few is the same as some, so naturally, Cowards-some-Fools. However, the word fail is throwing a wrench in my set-up. If one has a group of cowards and only a few of those cowards fail to be fools...wouldn't the majority of said group be both cowards and fools? Diagramed as: Cowards-most-Fools. I know we don't know any fixed numbers here, but "Few," as defined by Oxford Languages is: 1.) a small number of people or things 2.) used to emphasize how small a number is 3.) as a plural noun THE FEW - the minority of people; the elect. Given all three definitions, it's hard for me to ignore the connotations of, "few," being less than half. Thus, Cowards-most-Fools. I feel like this is especially critical in a flawed parallel reasoning question, in that I was looking for an answer that errantly combined a Most quantifier with a Some quantifier. Of course, I found none, and was left to guess at the rest. Has the LSAT writers' tendencies to be as convoluted as possible finally come back to bite them? Unfortunately, I doubt it. In summation, at least according to how I'm interpreting all practical definitions, "few cowards fail to be fools," manifests itself as C-most-F and thus F-some-C. Where did I go wrong?

  4. jcj2433 · 2021-10-13 16:39

    Also, sorry for the wall of text. It's my first post.

  5. Dieg) · 2021-12-23 19:22

    I would like to see an explanation of this as well. It seems to me that the passage implies the opposite of "few" (i.e., the minority), which I would assume is the majority, or most. Therefore, I feel as though they are indicating that there is "definitely a majority."

  6. jakennedy · 2022-01-19 10:08

    Hi @Dieg), The word “few” should be interpreted as a “some” quantifier because we do not necessarily know whether it is over 50% or not. The same would apply to the word “many”. Never translate either of them into most statements. So the stimulus has the following logical structure, as does the correct answer choice: A <-some? B B <-some? C ——————— A <-some? C

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