June 2020 LSAT Section 4 Question 17

It can be inferred from the passage that Charles G. Sibley would have been most likely to agree with which one of the...

aligarman on June 17, 2022

No explanation for this question

Would you be able to elaborate on this correct answer? I thought that the passage specifically stated that he noted that it would be practical to reduce the number of names that species can be classified as.

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Emil-Kunkin on June 18, 2022

Hi Ali,

While we may be able to support the idea that Sibley wanted to limit the number of species recognized with formal names, we cannot say that he thinks that doing so is the proper goal for ornithologists.

However, the next-to-last paragraph shows that Sibley thought that the advances brought on by new technology adds a new degree of complexity to the debate about classification. He thought that the very idea of a "species" does not reflect the way that animals actually are in nature. With this complexity, we cannot expect better DNA tech to enable us to neatly settle arguments.