December 2013 LSAT Section 1 Question 10

Vincent: No scientific discipline can study something that cannot be measured, and since happiness is an entirely sub...

avif on June 17, 2020

Issue with C

I don't understand how C is correct. Answer choice C says that science can rely on subjective experience. How do we know that Vincent would disagree with that? Perhaps he would agree that it could rely on subjective reports he just has an issue with things which are entirely subjective because they cannot be measured. What does that have to do with reliance on the report?

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shunhe on June 17, 2020

Hi @avif,

Thanks for the question! I think that you’re reading too much into the phrase “subjective reports.” These subjective reports aren’t some kind of written up thing, but rather people talking about (reporting on) their own subjective experience . So a subjective report of happiness would just be describing how you feel; a subjective report of your eyesight would just be describing what you see.

Now, Vincent is saying that no scientific discipline can study something that can’t be measured, and entirely subjective experiences can’t be measured. When (C) says that “a scientific disciplines can rely on subjective reports,” we should interpret that as essentially referring to entirely subjective reports. So here, since subjective reports can’t be measured, and even partially subjective reports can’t be measured to the degree in which they’re subjective, Vincent should believe that scientific disciplines can’t rely on subjective reports.

Also, compared to the other answer choices, (C) is a much better option, and remember that we have to pick the best answer on the LSAT.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

avif on June 18, 2020

I guess. Thanks.

shunhe on June 18, 2020

Yup, it's kind of lame, but sometimes we do get questions like this.