Humans began to spread across North America around 12,000 years ago, as the climate became warmer. During the same pe...

Irina July 30, 2019

@Julie,

This phrase indicates a circular reasoning flaw. Similar wording used on LSAT may include:
"presupposes what it attempts to prove,""assumes what it seeks to establish," "presupposes the truth of what it sets out to prove," "presupposes what it sets out to demonstrate" and so on. It is fairly rare to see circular reasoning on the LSAT and even more rare to see it as the correct answer choice.

Circular reasoning argument is one where the conclusion is supported by the premises, and the premises are supported by the conclusion, essentially restating the same idea to prove its validity. The easiest way to spot it is to see if the conclusion is a paraphrase of one or all of the premises.

X is truth because of Y
Y is true because of X

For example:

Driving and texting should be illegal because it is against the law.

For this specific question, a circular argument would look something like:

It is myth that humans lived in harmony with nature. Therefore, human activity was harmful to nature.

Notice how we can switch the premise and the conclusion in this circular argument, and it still would sound the same:

Human activity was harmful to nature. Therefore, it is a myth that humans lived in harmony with nature.

This passage merely uses "contrary to the myth" as part of the conclusion rather than one of the premises to support the conclusion, and is, therefore, not a circular argument.

Does this make sense?

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Julie-V July 31, 2019

thank you so much for the detailed explanation Irina!

Ravi August 1, 2019

@Julie-V, let us know if you have any other questions!