Q6 - We should do what will

[ttunden]

can anyone please explain why C is correct? i picked A because i thought it was cited in the Stim because i thought it was stated in the last sentence that says only most virtuous deserve praise thereby meaning do not praise those who are less virtuous


also did anyone draw informal logic figures to better understand the stim due to the language? i had to reread it at times due to the complexity and conditions stated

[timmydoeslsat]

I would not recommend diagramming this one. I think by the time you wrote out symbols and statements, you could have answered the question just by looking at the statements.

We are told that we should do what makes others more V and should not do what makes others less V.

On an inference question, I was expecting them to give me some kind of action to make a conclusion about, and I am given one. The statements bring up the action of praise.

We know that praising a certain group of people will make them more V. At this point, we know that this is something that we should do, as we are told that in the first statement.

This certain group of people is "less virtuous people."

While on the other hand, this other group, "more virtuous people," will actually have praise make them less V. We know from the first statement that this is something we should not do.

The final statement tells us about who deserves praise. We know that if someone deserves praise, it is the more virtuous people.

So we can infer that the less virtuous people, the ones we should praise, actually do not deserve it...and the group of people that actually deserve the praise is a group we should not praise.

C is a perfect reflection of this inference.

[ohthatpatrick]

Awesome explanation.

I agree with Timmy that diagramming this might overcomplicate things. Let me suggest, though, that almost all correct answers to Inference questions synthesize two or more claims.

The fact that (A) seemed appealing because it seemed like a rephrase of the final sentence should actually be a red flag. These questions aren't generally asking us to just rephrase one thought; they're asking us to connect the overlapping claims and synthesize them.

One of the most helpful ingredients we might notice in the answers is the word "should". The only way we'd be able to infer something about what "should" or "shouldn't" be done would be to get the first sentence involved, because that's the only sentence that gives us information about what "should/shouldn't" be done.

The way Timmy explained the way he was already making inferences when he read the 2nd sentence (and connected it to what he had read in the 1st sentence) is a key reading skill in LR.

As you read LR arguments, but in particular Inference, each time you read a new claim you should think, "does this overlap with what I just read?"

The overlap between the 1st and 2nd sentence is "more virtuous" and "less virtuous".

If I say:
Bob is a golfer. All golfers wear plaid.
You can infer:
Bob wears plaid.

Inferences normally work this way: because there's an overlapping piece of info, we can connect the dangling strands.

Similarly, because of the overlapping "more/less virtuous" in the 1st and 2nd sentence, we can connect "we should" to "praise those who are less virtuous" and "we should not" to "praise those who are more virtuous".

And of course, as he mentioned, the final sentence gives us "only the more virtuous" as an overlapping ingredient, allowing us to connect "we should praise" to "deserve/don't deserve praise".

Hope this helps.

[bray0002]

I read through each of your comments, and understood why C is correct. However, my initial guess was E.

1. We should do what will make others more virtuous.
2. We should not do what will make others less virtuous.
3. Praise make the less virtuous become more virtuous.
4. Praise makes the more virtuous become less virtuous.
5. Only the more virtuous deserve praise.
Therefore, we should not praise the more virtuous because praise will make them become less virtuous. We should also not praise the less virtuous because they do not deserve praise. So, my instincts tell me to choose E. (Withholding praise from everyone regardless of whether or not they deserve it.)

I realize that C is correct, but could someone point out where my mistake is coming from, because I would still choose E over C.

[ohthatpatrick]

Great enumeration of your thought process for (E).

I've copied it here, with the one problematic move you made in bold:
1. We should do what will make others more virtuous.
2. We should not do what will make others less virtuous.
3. Praise make the less virtuous become more virtuous.
4. Praise makes the more virtuous become less virtuous.
5. Only the more virtuous deserve praise.
Therefore, we should not praise the more virtuous because praise will make them become less virtuous. We should also not praise the less virtuous because they do not deserve praise.

We can't support that final inference because nowhere in this paragraph does it say "you shouldn't praise someone if they don't deserve it" or "only praise those who deserve it". It never gives a rule about who we should/shouldn't praise.

The only rule we get about what we should/shouldn't do is #1 and #2 from your list there.

If you combine your #1 and your #3, you get "we should praise those who are less virtuous".

That is a valid inference, and that contradicts (E).

=== other answers ===
(A) This contradicts what we just said was the valid inference. The valid inference is that "we SHOULD praise those who are less virtuous [deserve it least]".

(B) Combining idea #2 and #4, we get that "we SHOULD NOT praise those who are more virtuous [deserve it most]". That contradicts (B).

(D) Contradicts the #2/#4 inference we just covered.

Hope this helps.