PT80.S1.Q13 - If the purpose of laws is to contribute

lady macbeth

Without giving too much away, as I'm not finished BR'ing yet, can someone give me an example of a simple argument that exemplifies the flaw noted in answer choice D (draws a conclusion about how the world actually is on the basis of claims about how it should be)?

Admin note: edited title
https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-80-section-1-question-13/

BinghamtonDave

"On the basis of" indicates a descriptor of a premise. So, "on the basis of claims of how it should be" indicates a claim about how things should be. We have built upon that a claim about the actual world: how things actually are. Situation X should be Y, therefore situation X is indeed in the real world Y.

So for instances, I'm now going to make a claim about how something should be/have been, I went to school for military history and many people claim that: Hitler should have been stopped at Munich in September of 1938. On the basis of that claim I conclude: Hitler was indeed in reality stopped at Munich in September of 1938.

The above argument has been chosen so as to exemplify the glaring weakness in this line of reasoning. We simply cannot move from a thought about they way things should be as the basis for a claim for the way things actually are or actually were for that matter.

Another example: the world should be a place where every children is safe, therefore the world is a place where every child is safe.

Another common thread we might come across (and much discussed in philosophy circles) is a variation on answer choice (D): a move from a description of the way things are in reality to a conclusion about the way things ought or should be. This is commonly called the "is-ought" distinction and has been written about for centuries. This is a very, very brief introduction to that idea that doesn't do it justice. But, just how we should be familiar with both a whole-part and a part-whole flaw, digging deeper into (D), we should be familiar with both variations.

I hope this helps
David

edit: spelling

BinghamtonDave

76-2-16, just did this problem. It has an answer choice describing the other element of answer choice (D) from 80-1-13 that I advocate we should also be familiar with.