December 2015 LSAT Section 2 Question 21

Principle: If one does not criticize a form of behavior in oneself or vow to stop it, then one should not criticize t...

smilde11 on November 1, 2018

PT 77, S2, Q21

I'm confused by this one. Pr: -COB or -VSOB --> -SCBOP Appl: Doesn't Vow to stop being Tardy(-VSOB) --> - Shouldn't criticize tardiness in someone else (-SCBOP) Isn't it already justified since one of the two sufficient criteria are being invoked? Thanks for your help!

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Mehran on November 5, 2018

Hi @smilde11, thanks for your post. You are right that the principle supplied in the stimulus presents two independently sufficient conditions: (1) not CFB (does not criticize a form of behavior) OR (2) not VSB (does not vow to stop that behavior).

In the stimulus, we are presented with an "application" of this principle. This application focuses only on the second sufficient condition (not VSB).

The question stem asks you to select the answer choice that would justify this application. The thing that is missing from the premise is information about whether Shimada or McFeney are, themselves, actually tardy people. Answer choice (A) provides this missing information ("Both McFeney and Shimada are regularly tardy"). If (A) is not true, then the application of the principle as presented in the stimulus is not necessarily justified. Put another way, without the information supplied in (A), you could read the application of the principle provided in the stimulus and think, "well, but is Shimada even ever tardy? Is McFeney even ever tardy?" Because if they are not, then the principle does not apply to them, right?

Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Aidyn-Carlson on June 25, 2019

I thought the answer was D. If Shimada does not criticize his own behavior and vow to change it he should not criticize another. In a he doesn't vow to change and he doesn't criticize himself but he criticizes McFeney? He shouldn't be able to do that

Ravi on June 26, 2019

@Aidyn-Carlson,

Let's look at (D).

(D) says, "Shimada criticizes McFeney for regularly being tardy, but
also criticizes himself for occasional tardiness."

The problem with (D) is that if Shimada criticizes himself, then the
principle in the stimulus does not apply. And, in this case, it might
be o.k. for Shimada to criticize McFeney for consistently being tardy.
Thus, we can get rid of (D).

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other questions!

filozinni on June 17, 2020

@Ravi, why do you say that "if Shimada criticizes themselves, then the principle in the stimulus does not apply"? I am confused about that. Also, could you please try to explain one more time why A is correct? I read previous explanations but am not quite sure why that's the case. Thank you!