July 2020 LSAT Section 1 Question 22

Essayist: The historical figures that we find most engaging are very rarely those who are morally most virtuous. What...

Mazen on August 6, 2022

E versus A

Hi I read the previous thread, but am still unclear on the gaps between the premises and the conclusion. It seems to me that there are more than one necessary assumption to fill different gaps. Would someone please go over the gap, and explain the difference between answer-choices A and E? Respectfully Mazen

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Emil-Kunkin on August 6, 2022

Hi Mazen,

I agree that there is more than one gap here (and that can be the case on necessary assumption questions), and our job is not to fill the gap, but to find the answer choice that the author must believe is true if their argument makes any sense.

Sufficient assumption questions are the ones where we need to find and fill the gap, necessary assumption questions do not ask us to completely fix the argument, but to find the answer choice that the author must believe.

We can say that the author must agree with A- that is, that it is necessary for their argument. The author claims that virtue is not what we admire most, because the peoples whose lives we would most want to live are those who we admire most, and that the figures we find most engaging are those who are not virtuous.

So, if it were not the case that we want to live the lives of engaging people, then the author's argument would make little sense, and therefore, the author must assume that engaging equals want to live like.

E does not have to be true. The author could hold the position that moral virtue is not aquality we find engaging, but is also not the single least engaging quality.

Mazen on August 6, 2022

Got it!

Thank You Emil