LSAT 158 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Domesticated animals, such as dogs, have come into existence…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: All animals could, theoretically, be domesticated.

REASONING: Animals are domesticated through selective breeding. The tamest animals are bred together to create more tame offspring, until eventually the animal is domesticated.

ANALYSIS: There are two important things here. First, make sure that you noticed the author’s use of the phrase “in principle” in the conclusion. The author is not saying any animal could be easily domesticated, but simply that it’s possible.

Second, make sure you understand the process. Wild animals are bred until they produce offspring that are more tame than the parents. That tame generation is used to produce even tamer animals, and so on. It’s important to note that this requires at least some of the offspring to be tamer than the parents.

In order to weaken the argument, we need to show that not all animals can be domesticated – that is, at least one species cannot be bred for domesticity.

___________

1. We don’t care about whether animals can go from domesticated to wild. We want to show that there are some which we can’t domesticate.
2. This shows that it’s harder to domesticate some animals, but not impossible. See analysis above.
3. CORRECT. An animal that doesn’t show any tameness cannot be bred for domesticity, because it requires selection for tame animals.
4. This shows that it’s harder to domesticate some animals, but not impossible. See analysis above.
5. This just tells us that not all members of domesticated species are equally tame – but they are still domesticated. We need to show that some cannot be domesticated.

Recap: The question begins with “Domesticated animals, such as dogs, have come into existence”. It is a Weaken question. Learn how to master LSAT Weaken questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.