October 2011 LSAT
Section 4
Question 17
How does the purpose of passage B relate to the content of passage A?
Reply
jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com on October 31, 2020
Hi I am not an instructor but I understand why the correct answer is E and not D. Passage A is very committed to evolutionary psychology explanation of human behavior that people do seemingly unselfish genes for the selfish reason to promote their genes. Passage B, however, is more skeptical of evolutionary psychology explanation of human behavior by arguing that just because a behavior can promote the proliferation of gene does not mean people perform these behaviors simply for the reason of proliferating their genes. It could be that people are naturally interested in doing those things and not for any ulterior motives such as proliferation of their genes. Thus D is wrong because Passage B does not think Passage A’s claim of evolutionary psychology explanation of human behavior is vacuous as Passage B clearly acknowledges the evidences presented in Passage A. Passage B simply criticizes passage A for drawing a conclusion based on evidence that is non-conclusive.E is correct because Passage B does undermine the claim of Passage A by pointing out that its evidences do not prove evolutionary psychology theory definitively, as there may be other explanations in explaining human behavior other than the proliferation of their genes. Passage B believes that the claim used in Passage A relies on questionable reasoning of available evidence.
I hope that I explained it correctly. Please feel free to correct me. Thank you