LSAT 120 – Section 1 – Question 13

LSAT 120 - Section 1 - Question 13

October 2005

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT120 S1 Q13
+LR
Most strongly supported +MSS
Fill in the blank +Fill
A
2%
155
B
1%
152
C
81%
164
D
16%
159
E
1%
155
129
143
157
 +Medium 145.819 +SubsectionMedium

All societies recognize certain rules to be so crucial that they define those rules as duties, such as rules restricting violence and those requiring the keeping of agreements. Contained in the notion of a duty is the idea that its fulfillment is so fundamental to a properly functioning society that persons obligated by it cannot be excused on the ground that its fulfillment would be harmful to their self-interest. This shows that _______.

Summary
According to the stimulus, all societies consider some rules so important that they are defined as duties. (For example, limiting violence and keeping promises.) Duties are considered so important to society that they must be fulfilled even if it harms the dutiful person’s self-interest. Therefore... what?

Strongly Supported Conclusions
Based on the stimulus, we can infer that:
All societies require people to restrict violence and keep their agreements to at least some extent, even if doing so is contrary to their self-interest.
All societies believe that people may sometimes be required to follow a duty instead of their self-interest.

A
all societies overrate the benefits of certain rules, such as those governing the keeping of agreements
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t indicate whether societies do or do not accurately estimate the benefits of certain rules, so we cannot draw this conclusion.
B
all societies have certain rules that no people are capable of following
This is not supported. The stimulus never suggests whether or not people are capable of following certain rules or duties, so we can’t infer this statement.
C
all societies recognize the possibility of clashes between individual self-interest and the performance of duty
This is strongly supported. The stimulus says that all societies recognize some duties, and a duty inherently means something that cannot be excused by self-interest. That must mean that all societies recognize a possibility of a choice (or clash) between duty and self-interest.
D
a properly functioning society will recognize that some duties take priority over others
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t indicate a hierarchy of duties at all, nor does it suggest that duties will ever necessarily come into conflict. So, we can’t say that some duties would have to take priority.
E
societies have no right to expect people always to perform their duties
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t indicate the limits of societies’ rights, nor does it talk about any scenario where someone could be excused from performing their duties.

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LSAT PrepTest 120 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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