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Trouble understanding "otherwise"

blackberryblackberry Alum Member
edited April 2019 in General 218 karma

Hi everyone.

I'm having problems understanding this sentence, extracted from PT23 Section3 #10:

"If a person chooses to walk rather than drive, there's one less vehicle emitting pollution into the air than there would be otherwise."

What does the otherwise do? Is it simply just saying that if a person chooses to drive rather than walk, there's not one less vehicle emitting pollution into the air?

Thank you!

https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-23-section-3-question-10/
Admin note: added link

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Comments

  • akistotleakistotle Member ⭐ 🍌🍌
    edited April 2019 9382 karma

    Yea, I think so. I think it means "than the case in which that person chooses not to walk rather than drive."

    "Otherwise" confused me too and I made this post about it a long time ago:
    https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/14329/referential-phrase-otherwise

    tagging @"Cant Get Right" and @"J.Y. Ping"

  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27900 karma

    Interesting. @akistotle is right, and it’s interesting because that’s the failure of the sufficient. So normally when we fail the sufficient, the necessary can do what it wants. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the “otherwise” tacked onto the end.

  • jessicacejessicace Alum Member
    90 karma

    Not sure if this always holds, but someone told me that it's logically possible to replace "otherwise" with "if not" to make the sentence easier to understand

  • blackberryblackberry Alum Member
    218 karma

    Thank you for the inputs!

    @akistotle loved your post!

    @"Cant Get Right" interesting observation!

    @jessicace trying it out below with your advice:

    When companies' profits would otherwise be reduced by an increase in the minimum wage, the companies often reduce the number of workers they employ.

    Does my interpretation make sense:

    profits if not [for the increase in min wage] be reduced by increase in min wage, companies often reduce the number of workers they employ

  • jessicacejessicace Alum Member
    90 karma

    No I don’t think the literal interpretation holds in all cases, sorry. It really depends on how you interpret it, it helped me to slow down and think of it as the opposite of the issue at hand. In this example it’s saying that while an increase in the minimum wage usually entails the company’s profit to decrease, it is not the case since they would offset that effect by reducing the amount of people that work there (aka firing a bunch of people).

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