LSAT 23 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q14

LR Question 14 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Kim: In northern Europe during the eighteenth…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: Lee concludes that Europe’s optimism wasn’t due to increased life expectancy.

REASONING: Europeans would have had to know they were living longer to be happy about it.

ANALYSIS: There might be other ways that increased life expectancy makes you happy, even if you don’t realize that life expectancy is up. You’d probably feel happier if your children stopped dying, even if you didn’t know why.

___________

1. CORRECT. Maybe we are richer when people live longer, and that makes us happier.
2. So? People back then didn’t know that they were living longer.
3. How does this help Kim? If a philosopher says that 20 angels can dance on the head of a pin, what does that have to do with happiness and
   life expectancy? (That’s a conjecture that affects no one)
4. This could explain why no one knew that life expectancy had increased. But this doesn’t help Kim prove that people were happy because of
   the increase.
5. This supports Lee, by showing that life expectancy wasn’t to blame for the increase in happiness.

Recap: The question begins with “In northern Europe during the eighteenth century”. It is a Weaken question. Learn more about LSAT Weaken questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.