December 2013 LSAT Section 1 Question 14

Some philosophers explain visual perception by suggesting that when we visually perceive an object, a mental image of...

avif on June 17, 2020

Clarification

I got the right answer by limiting the choices to C and D. I ended up getting the right answer but I just want to understand what is wrong with D. C seemed better but D also seems pretty close to the reasoning. What is wrong with D?

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shunhe on June 17, 2020

Hi @avif,

Thanks for the question! Good instinct in rooting out the best answer here, always pick the answer that’s the closest to the reasoning. Notice that in the prompt, the conclusion has to do with how the hypothesis “cannot be correct,” and similarly, in (C), the historians’ claim “must be false.” These are very strongly stated claims of falsity that are made by these conclusions. Now look at (D)’s conclusion. It says that “this definition is unfortunate.” This language doesn’t match; this conclusion is not saying that something’s false or wrong, just that it’s unfortunate. In addition, (D) is about a definition, whereas both the stimulus and (C) are about theories (a philosophical theory about visual perception, and a theory about theories). Finally, the stimulus relies on the idea of infinite regresses being absurd, and so does (C). (D), however, does not do this, and so just differs in more ways than (C).

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

avif on June 18, 2020

Thanks!

shunhe on June 18, 2020

Glad I helped!