LSAT 132 – Section 2 – Question 17

LSAT 132 - Section 2 - Question 17

December 2010

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT132 S2 Q17
+LR
Sufficient assumption +SA
Conditional Reasoning +CondR
Link Assumption +LinkA
A
58%
166
B
3%
158
C
6%
156
D
6%
159
E
28%
158
150
160
169
 +Hardest 148.345 +SubsectionMedium

One should never sacrifice one’s health in order to acquire money, for without health, happiness is not obtainable.

Summary
The author concludes that we should not sacrifice health to obtain money. This is based on the fact that health is necessary to obtain happiness.

Missing Connection
It’s not easy to transform the argument into Lawgic. So I wouldn’t force it. Instead, I’m focused on the conclusion bringing up the new idea of acquiring money and that we “should never” sacrifice health for money. Why shouldn’t we sacrifice health for acquiring money? The premise doesn’t say anything about acquiring money, or why we “should” or “should not” do something, so I’m expecting the correct answer, at a minimum, to tell me something about acquiring money and when we “should” or “should not” do something.
Ultimately the argument can be diagrammed, although most would find it difficult to translate the conclusion:
Premise: happiness → health
Conclusion: acquire money → NOT sacrifice health (in other words, have health)
Missing link: acquire money → happiness

A
Money should be acquired only if its acquisition will not make happiness unobtainable.
We know from the premise that without health, happiness is unobtainable. So if you sacrifice your health, that makes happiness unobtainable. According to (A), then, money should be acquired only if you do NOT sacrifice your health, because sacrificing health makes happiness unobtainable.
B
In order to be happy one must have either money or health.
(B) doesn’t tell me why one “should” never do something. So it can’t prove our conclusion, because neither (B) nor the premise tells me why one “should” never do something. There’s currently no support for this kind of prescriptive conclusion.
C
Health should be valued only as a precondition for happiness.
(C) tells me about a constraint on how we should value health. But it doesn’t prove anything about when we should or should not sacrifice health or acquire money.
D
Being wealthy is, under certain conditions, conducive to unhappiness.
(D) doesn’t tell me why one “should” never do something. So it can’t prove our conclusion, because neither (D) nor the premise tells me why one “should” never do something. There’s currently no support for this kind of prescriptive conclusion.
E
Health is more conducive to happiness than wealth is.
(E) doesn’t tell me why one “should” never do something. So it can’t prove our conclusion, because neither (E) nor the premise tells me why one “should” never do something. There’s currently no support for this kind of prescriptive conclusion.

This is a tough SA question that doesn't make itself easily translatable into Lawgic.

The argument in the stimulus:

(Premise) without health, happiness is not obtainable
(Premise, using Group 3 translation) happiness --> not sacrifice health [meaning you have health or you are healthy]

___________
(Conclusion) never sacrifice health to acquire money
(Conclusion, using Group 4 translation) acquire money --> not sacrifice health

So what's missing?
(sufficient assumption) acquire money --> happiness
(sufficient assumption) acquire money only if not make happiness unobtainable. The double negation "not" and "un" cancel out.

Together, we get:
acquire money --> happiness --> not sacrifice health
___________
acquire money --> not sacrifice health

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LSAT PrepTest 132 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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