December 2015 LSAT Section 4 Question 7

It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing to do is to buy food from local farmers whenever i...

AndrewArabie on April 29, 2023

B and E

I initially chose B over E because it didn't seem that the conclusion was rejecting this view because it allowed for occasions where the premise is sometimes right. That was until I went over it again and the quote we are focusing on is using sufficient/necessary terminology so anytime buying locally farmed food may not be the most environmentally friendly option is in essence rejecting that view. But with B, the quote we are focusing on is certainly is a general principle, and that principle is used to support the activity of buying locally sourced food so I don't understand why it's wrong.

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Emil-Kunkin on May 4 at 10:58PM

Hi, the author is absolutely rejecting the view in question, but the wording makes it tricky. It all comes down to the strength of the statement in question. As you noted, it is conditional, it's basically telling. Us that whenever possible local food is the greenest. This is a really strong statement, essentially telling us that local always equals sustainable.

To disprove a strong statement like that we only need one counter example. The author then provides reasoning to doubt the always, thus disproving the idea that local is always best.

While B is indeed a general principle, the author isn't supporting any particular activity, and is instead trying to weaken or modify that principle.