Columnist: Neuroscientists have found that states of profound creativi

EXPLANATION FROM Fox LSAT

No, this is stupid. The logic here is just like saying, “Scientists have discovered that law professors talk a lot. They have also found that drinking an entire bottle of Jack Daniels causes people to talk a lot. Therefore one can become a law professor by drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels.”

The problem here is 1) correlation doesn’t equal causation and 2) the argument is confusing cause with effect. Just because creativity is correlated with theta brain waves doesn’t mean that one causes the other. And furthermore, it certainly doesn’t mean that theta brain waves cause creativity. It could be that creativity causes theta brain waves.

We’re asked to find grounds for finding the columnist’s reasoning vulnerable. I think we’ve already done that.

A) If this said “theta brain waves” instead of “hippocampus” I’d like it. As is, it feels like a trap, since the hippocampus is only one region where theta brain waves occur. This just doesn’t seem to be an accurate description of what the argument was actually saying.

B) No, the argument says that music is sufficient for creativity, not that it’s necessary.

C) What? This is beside the point. It’s possible that the columnist would say that listening to live music also causes creativity, and that wouldn’t ruin the columnist’s argument. No way.

D) Right. This is a better version of A. The columnist has assumed that theta brain waves cause creativity. If D is true, then the columnist is shown to be a moron.

E) The argument doesn’t even mention people who are not in states of creativity, or who have low levels of brain waves. This is just plain irrelevant.

Our answer is D.­