LSAT 117 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q7

LR Question 7 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Since empathy is essential for people to be willing …

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Civilized society can’t exist without empathy.

REASONING: Empathy is essential for people to be willing to follow moral codes that sometimes require them to be selfless.

ANALYSIS: The argument is:

Empathy is necessary for people to follow certain moral codes.

So, empathy is necessary for civilized society.

There’s a missing link there. Why would the inability to follow these moral codes destroy civilized society?

The author must be assuming that civilized society requires at least some people to be willing to put others’ interests ahead of their own.

If that wasn’t true, then civilized society could exist without the moral behavior that allegedly requires empathy.

___________

1. CORRECT. The argument requires assuming that civilized society depends on having people who are sometimes willing to sacrifice their own welfare to help others. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter whether empathy is needed to produce that behavior.
   Negation: Civilized society could exist without people who are willing to be selfless.
2. Too strong. The argument doesn’t claim that lack of empathy usually leads to harmful actions. Only that empathy is needed for a certain kind of moral behavior.
   Negation: Lack of empathy usually does not lead to detrimental actions.
3. This is a sufficient condition: If everyone helps others, society will be civilized. But the argument never needs to establish what is sufficient for civilization – only what is necessary.
   Negation: It’s possible for everyone to sometimes help others and yet that society still isn’t civilized.
4. Two issues here. First, the stimulus talks about “sometimes” requiring people to be selfless, not always requiring people to do so. Also, where the moral codes came from is irrelevant.
   Negation: There have never been any such moral codes in civilized societies.
5. The stimulus already tells us that empathy is essential for people to be willing to follow certain moral codes. We don’t need a much broader claim that empathetic people generally ignore their own welfare for others.
   Negation: Empathetic people are not generally more likely to put others’ interests ahead of their own.