LSAT 123 – Section 3 – Question 16

LSAT 123 - Section 3 - Question 16

June 2007

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Question QuickView	Type	Tags	Answer Choices	Curve	Question Difficulty	Psg/Game/S Difficulty	Explanation
PT123 S3 Q16	+LR	Most strongly supported +MSS Fill in the blank +Fill Conditional Reasoning +CondR	A 36% 147 B 33% 157 C 5% 144 D 1% 145 E 25% 149	150 157 165	+Harder	144.044 +SubsectionEasier

Philosopher: Nations are not literally persons; they have no thoughts or feelings, and, literally speaking, they perform no actions. Thus they have no moral rights or responsibilities. But no nation can survive unless many of its citizens attribute such rights and responsibilities to it, for nothing else could prompt people to make the sacrifices national citizenship demands. Obviously, then, a nation _______.

Summary

The philosopher says that nations are not persons, and do not think, feel, or perform actions. They therefore have no moral rights or responsibilities. However, in order for a nation to survive, its citizens must attribute rights and responsibilities to the nation, because this is necessary to drive people to sacrifice for their nation. So, what can we conclude about nations?

In Lawgic:

P1: nation → /person & /think & /feel & /act → /rights & /responsibilities

P2: nation survives → citizens sacrifice → citizens attribute rights & responsibilities

C: ?

Strongly Supported Conclusions

The philosopher’s claims let us conclude that a nation can only survive if its citizens believe something that is false, i.e. that the nation has rights and responsibilities.

cannot continue to exist unless something other than the false belief that the nation has moral rights motivates its citizens to make sacrifices

This is not supported. The philosopher doesn’t suggest another factor that could be needed to motivate citizens. In fact, the philosopher says this false belief is the only thing that can motivate citizens to make sacrifices, so suggesting another motivator doesn’t make sense.

cannot survive unless many of its citizens have some beliefs that are literally false

This is strongly supported. The philosopher establishes that a nation cannot survive unless its citizens attribute rights and responsibilities to it. We know that nations can’t actually have rights and responsibilities, so survival requires citizens to hold a false belief.

can never be a target of moral praise or blame

This is not supported. The philosopher doesn’t discuss moral praise and blame, so we don’t know what relationship—if any—they have to concepts like moral rights and responsibilities. Because of that, we can’t say if nations could or could not be targeted.

is not worth the sacrifices that its citizens make on its behalf

This is not supported. The philosopher doesn’t bring up the idea of worthiness at all, and definitely doesn’t make a claim about whether or not nations are worthy of their citizens’ sacrifices.

should always be thought of in metaphorical rather than literal terms

This is anti-supported. The philosopher begins by discussing nations in literal terms (i.e. explaining that they are not literally persons), which strongly implies that it’s legitimate to at least sometimes discuss nations in literal terms.

LSAT 123 – Section 3 – Question 16

LSAT 123 - Section 3 - Question 16

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Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 123 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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