PT52.S3.Q25 - some people mistakenly believe

Comments

• Accounts Playable Live Sage ⭐

  August 2016 3107 karma

  This question is sort of like a parallel reasoning question disguised as a principle question. We need to find out what the principle in the original argument is and then pick out an argument that uses that same principle.
  
  It's wrong to think that since we don't have direct access to the distant past, we can't learn anything about it. Historians are able to discover tons of things about a regions past based off the clues they find in the environment. However, the more distant the period was, the less useful our study becomes.
  
  What I am looking for: The argument seems pretty reasonable to me. If my backyard is muddy and wet, I can probably tell something about the very recent past: it rained last night. But, I have no idea what happened to my backyard 8000 years ago. In other words, the principle seems to be something like "the farther in time we are from the period we care about, the harder it is to usefully study that period."
  
  Answer A: This seems pretty good. Since we are far removed from the origins of the solar system, we can't usefully study it now. But, we can usefully study things that happened not that long ago relative to the origin (the earlier years).
  
  Answer B: This doesn't have to do with time.
  
  Answer C: This also doesn't have to do with time. Plus, we don't care about an appreciation for anything; we care about the usefulness of the study.
  
  Answer This doesn't have to do with time.
  
  Answer E: This doesn't have to do with time.
• BinghamtonDave Alum Member ⭐ 🍌🍌

  August 2016 8700 karma

  @"Accounts Playable" did a wonderful job as usual, but to add on: this question is asking us to find the underlying principle in the stimulus and then hunt-out the answer choice that best displays that principle. Essentially our task here is 3 steps: 1. read the stimulus and find out what exactly is being illustrated. 2.formulate a sort of abstract/malleable principle that expresses what is being illustrated 3. find an answer choice that doesn't necessarily mirror that principle, but looks the most like it. Wrong answer choices will be missing an aspect of the principle as we have formulated it or contain reasoning that couldn't possibly get us to a similar conclusion.
  
  So what is the principle being illustrated in the stimulus? That current historians and archaeologists can learn something about the past from studying the present. But there is a small caveat: there appears to be some degree of diminishing returns: the further back into the past we go, the less applicable our study of the present appears to be.
  
  This makes intuitive sense. Now this is the LSAT, we know that the correct answer could be something that demonstrates roughly the same principle and yet talks about any variety of unrelated subjects.
  
  If you take this line of reasoning then the only choices that really speak to the principle we have outlined above are (A) and (C). But (C) is missing a crucial dimension. That of time. One's worldview can be "further" from someone's at the same exact time. (C) doesn't speak to the temporal element of the stimulus.
  
  (A) is our best choice.
• blah170blah Alum Inactive ⭐

  August 2016 3545 karma

  To add to @"Accounts Playable":
  
  (A) is the only answer choice that makes a connection between the time of evidence and its relevancy.
  
  (B) doesn't have to do with time, it deals with the amount of time we put in. Not the same.
  
  (C) doesn't have to do with time, evidence, or relevancy.
  
  (D) doesn't make a value statement about the relationship between time of evidence and its relevance.
  
  (E) doesn't have to do with time and also deals with the amount of time we put in. It also doesn't include a negative connotation about the inapplicability of recent evidence.