LR Question 23 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Problem: If Shayna congratulates Daniel on his award…
QUESTION TYPE: Principle
PROBLEM: Congratulate ➞ misrepresent
Congratulate ➞ hurt feelings
PRINCIPLE:
Insincere ➞ Know they prefer kindness to honesty
Know they prefer kindness to honesty ➞ Insincere
ANALYSIS: On principle/problem questions, you need to be a robot. You need to look at exactly what a rule says and then obey it.
We have just one situation where insincerity is allowed. If you know that someone prefers kindness to honesty, then you might be allowed to lie to them.
If you don’t know that (or if you’re unsure), then you must be honest.
Shayna doesn’t know whether Daniel prefers kindness to honesty. So she must be sincere. She can’t congratulate Daniel, even though not congratulating him will hurt his feelings.
___________
- This doesn’t work. If Shayna congratulates Daniel, she will misrepresent her feelings. That’s only allowed if she knows for a fact that Daniel prefers kindness to honesty.
- The fact that Daniel might prefer kindness to honesty isn’t enough. Shayna would need to know for sure that Daniel feels that way before she misrepresents herself.
- This is close, but Shayna’s beliefs about kindness vs. honesty aren’t the issue. What’s relevant is what Shayna thinks Daniel believes.
- This doesn’t match the principle. Hurt feelings aren’t relevant. The only reason to lie is if you think the other person would prefer kindness to honesty.
In this case, Daniel might prefer the harsh truth to a gentle lie. - CORRECT. If Shayna doesn’t know what Daniel wants, the principle says she should be honest.
More Resources for Principle Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Principle questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers principle questions.
Hi Jens,
Actually, in this case, it doesn’t really matter whether we think of it as know or believe. Among the answer choices here, the only one that can make sense is (E).
None of the other answers make it clear what Shayna knows or believes, except (C), but (C) does not tell us what she believes about Daniel’s preferences, and that’s the only belief that matters to the question.
The difference between what someone knows and what someone believes to be true is so fine that I doubt you’ll ever have a question relying entirely on that distinction. The great thing about the LSAT is that there are always clear logical reasons for an answer being correct or incorrect, even though they are frequently buried under tricky language.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for your explanations Graeme! Shouldn’t the “know” in our explanation be replaced by “believe”? The principle doesn’t require you to know that the other person would prefer kindness to honesty, only a believe that he/she does. Thus an answer like “Shayna thinks, but doesn’t know for sure…” would be in accordance with the principle, that’s why the correct answer has to state that she has no opinion about it at all.