LSAT 114 – Section 1 – Question 19

LSAT 114 - Section 1 - Question 19

October 2002

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT114 S1 Q19
+LR
Most strongly supported +MSS
Fill in the blank +Fill
Conditional Reasoning +CondR
A
7%
157
B
4%
156
C
61%
165
D
19%
156
E
9%
159
148
157
167
 +Harder 144.005 +SubsectionEasier

Essayist: Only happiness is intrinsically valuable; other things are valuable only insofar as they contribute to happiness. Some philosophers argue that the fact that we do not approve of a bad person’s being happy shows that we value happiness only when it is deserved. This supposedly shows that we find something besides happiness to be intrinsically valuable. But the happiness people deserve is determined by the amount of happiness they bring to others. Therefore, _______.

Summary

Only happiness is intrinsically valuable. Other things are valuable only if they contribute to happiness. Some philosophers say the fact that we don’t approve of a bad person being happy shows we only value happiness when it is deserved. They say this shows something other than happiness can have intrinsic value. But however much happiness people deserve is determined by how much they bring happiness to others.

Strongly Supported Conclusions

The fact that we don’t approve of a bad person being happy is a product of the fact that happiness has intrinsic value.

A
the notion that people can be deserving of happiness is ultimately incoherent

This is unsupported because the author does not contest the idea that people can be deserving of happiness. The author is instead examining why we say some people don’t deserve happiness.

B
people do not actually value happiness as much as they think they do

This is unsupported because the author provides no means of addressing how much people value happiness or how much they think they value happiness.

C
the judgment that a person deserves to be happy is itself to be understood in terms of happiness

This is strongly supported because the author implies that whether someone deserves happiness is a product of how much happiness they bring to others.

D
the only way to be assured of happiness is to bring happiness to those who have done something to deserve it

This is unsupported because the author doesn’t tell us what happens if we bring happiness to someone who deserves it, nor does the author tell us how to guarantee our happiness.

E
a truly bad person cannot actually be very happy

This is unsupported because while the author implies that a bad person may not be bringing happiness to others, this wouldn’t necessarily prevent that person from experiencing happiness.

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LSAT PrepTest 114 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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