LSAT 116 – Section 2 – Question 12

LSAT 116 - Section 2 - Question 12

June 2004

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT116 S2 Q12
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Lack of Support v. False Conclusion +LSvFC
A
8%
156
B
87%
164
C
1%
152
D
3%
153
E
1%
153
137
145
154
 +Medium 146.822 +SubsectionMedium

Essayist: People once believed that Earth was at the center of the universe, and that, therefore, Earth and its inhabitants were important. We now know that Earth revolves around a star at the outskirts of a spiral arm of one of countless galaxies. Therefore, people’s old belief that Earth and its inhabitants were important was false.

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The essayist claims that neither Earth nor anything that lives on it is important. People used to think Earth (and its inhabitants) was important because they mistakenly believed Earth was at the center of the universe, but since we now know that it’s not, the essayist argues that their belief in Earth's importance is also mistaken.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The problem is that the argument only identifies a bad reason for believing a claim, but doesn’t actually disprove the claim itself. The fact that people once had the wrong reason for believing Earth and its inhabitants are important does not mean they are unimportant. Undermining one potential piece of support for a claim does not prove the claim to be false.

A
presumes, without providing justification, that only true statements can have good reasons to be believed
The essayist didn’t make any claim about what does or doesn’t have good reasons to be believed. The conclusion is that Earth is not important.
B
neglects to consider that a statement that was believed for questionable reasons may nevertheless have been true
This describes what the essayist didn’t account for. People can believe a true fact for the wrong reason, so merely pointing out that their reason for believing was wrong doesn’t prove that Earth isn’t important.
C
fails to consider that there can be no reason for disbelieving a true statement
The only "true statement" identified in the stimulus is that Earth revolves around a star. All that matters for the argument is that this statement is true, not whether people have reason to believe it or not.
D
overlooks the fact that people’s perception of their importance changed from century to century
Similar to (E), this is irrelevant. The argument says that it’s wrong to believe that Earth is important. It doesn’t matter whether or not people’s opinions on that issue change over time.
E
neglects the fact that people’s perception of their importance varies from culture to culture
Similar to (D), this doesn’t matter. The argument says that it’s wrong to believe that Earth is important. Whether or not different cultures have different opinions on that issue is irrelevant.

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LSAT PrepTest 116 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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