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Hi,

I have been studying lsat for quite a while now and I am still confused about the premise indicator "because" and "since."

I am completely aware of what they mean and how they are used.

However, I always find them confusing when I try to set the Sufficient -> Necessary conditions.

For some of the problems on the LSAT, especially parallel reasoning questions, I like to draw arrows S -> N.

When I see the words "because" and "since" I am not sure where I should put the phrases that follow these two words.

For example, "only if" is a necessary condition indicator. So, when I draw the arrow, I put the phrases in the "N" area.

So..

Can anyone help me with the "because" and "since" in terms of how I should set up the S -> N when these words come up?

Easy - you don't. Those words aren't (necessarily) indicators of conditional logic. They're indicators of causality (because) and premises (because AND since).

When you encounter conditional reasoning and premises in an argument, if you are going to diagram the logic, you diagram the premises of the argument separately from the conclusion and then examine how the premises relate to the conclusion to see the method of reasoning being employed to try to establish the conclusion and to determine if the argument is applying sound or flawed reasoning. You cannot do that if you lump the conclusion together with the premises in a diagram.

Depending on how the argument is phrased, the conclusion frequently precedes the word 'since' or 'because', hence they are helpful structural indicators to determine which part is the conclusion.