LSAT 82, Logical Reasoning II, Q16, LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: The prevailing view among historians is that medieval…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: We have reason to doubt that medieval peasants were especially religious.

REASONING: The people who wrote Europe’s medieval records were religious officials. They may have exaggerated how devoted people were.

ANALYSIS: This is an ad hominem argument. The author’s only evidence is that religious people may have exaggerated.

But there’s no support for that. We could speculate in the opposite direction too: maybe the clergy wanted to ensure people were religious, and so kept accurate records in order to judge their progress.

See? Anyone can make a theory without evidence. To weaken this argument, look for some similar reason that suggests the clergy had a reason to keep honest records.

___________

1. This sounds good, but if peasants only did religious activities they would starve. Farming is not a religious activity. Nor is most work. So perhaps this just means the records catalogued some day to day activities as well. It doesn’t tell us whether religious activities are less than expected. (You’d never expect pure religious activities to rise above, say, 30% of the peasantry’s time, when you add in eating, sleeping, farming, cleaning, etc)
2. This shows that clergy knew peasants well, but it doesn’t show that the clergy were honest in their records. You can know a truth and lie about it.
3. CORRECT. This strongly weakens the argument. If record keepers were going to exaggerate religion, you’d expect them to do it for all social classes. The fact that they mention religiosity only among peasants suggests that peasants were genuinely religious.
4. So? The stimulus gives us no reason to suggest historians failed to consult reliable records. This answer doesn’t do anything one way or another.
   Also, we’re trying to weaken the author, who is arguing against historians. Whereas this answer could only be used as an answer against historians. (The author could well form an opinion about the historians’ work without being one herself)
5. The author already said that medieval clergy were the record keepers, and that such record keepers exaggerated the religiosity of the people. So, the author more or less already expects the clergy to describe the peasants engaging in religious activities.

   The author had an easy reply to this answer: they say the clergy are exaggerating people’s religious devotion. So they’d likely argue that these records are exaggerations too.

Recap: The question begins with “The prevailing view among historians is that medieval”. It is a Weaken question. Learn more about LSAT Weaken questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.

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