October 2000 LSAT
Section 1
Question 8
Rossi: It is undemocratic for people to live under a government in which their interests are not represented. So ...
Replies
Emil on April 9 at 07:37PM
Hi, a general principle is just a rule or statement. Principles do not necessarily have to be normative. That is, they don't have to be telling us how something SHOULD be, but rather, they can also be a statement describing generally how things are.This does feel a little weird, since in common usage I feel like the term principle generally refers to a normative statement, but dictionary definition wise, a principle is just any general rule. This was one case where I just had to suspend the connotations I would normally attach to a word and be ok with a principle just being any overarching rule.
Andrew on April 10 at 07:09PM
Thank you Emil. Had D not been an option, I would've chosen A. But why is D incorrect? Is it just because the tentmakers did not intend for the first sentence to be a description?Emil on April 18 at 11:07PM
I think the issue with D is that Rossi does give a rationale. A description is just something that describes, like "the dog is brown " or "kids can't vote" while a rationale is a reason for doing something. The first sentence is a reason for changing a policy, to enable kids to vote.Andrew on April 20 at 06:05PM
Thank you Emil