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 ...

AndrewArabie on April 7, 2023

Why not D

I didn't choose A because the first sentence doesn't read as a general principle to me. A general principle would establish that the society the speakers live in should be democratic. This is why I chose D. Because Rossi's first sentence doesn't seem to be a general principle, it seems to be a description. He uses this description without any general principle as a rationale for his proposed policy. Why is that incorrect?

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Emil-Kunkin on April 9, 2023

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.

AndrewArabie on April 10, 2023

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-Kunkin on April 18, 2023

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.

AndrewArabie on April 20, 2023

Thank you Emil