Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT108 S1 P2 Q13 Explanation

Non-Objectivist Discourse

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsAuthor's AttitudeLaw

Keep going in LSAT Lab

  • Save & drill this skill build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Passage

In recent years, a growing belief that the way society decides what to treat as true is controlled through largely unrecognized discursive practices has led legal reformers to examine the complex interconnections between narrative and law. In many legal systems, legal judgments are based on competing stories about events. Without having witnessed in law from selective perception, or from subjective judgments based on prior experiences, values, and beliefs.

The societal harm caused by the assumption of objectivist principles in traditional legal discourse is that, historically, the stories judged to be objectively true are those told by people who are trained in legal discourse, while the stories of language of the law are rejected as false.

Legal scholars such as Patricia Williams, Derrick Bell, and Mari Matsuda have sought empowerment for the latter group of people through the construction of alternative legal narratives. Objectivist legal discourse systematically disallows the language of emotion and experience by focusing on cognition in its narrowest sense. These legal reformers propose replacing such by overcoming differences in background and training and forming a new collectivity based on emotional empathy.

What this question is testing

Author's Attitude

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
13.

Which one of the following most accurately describes the author’s attitude toward proposals to introduce personal stories

Answer choices

  1. Opposite1% picked this

    strongly

    We're looking for positivity, since that's how the final three sentences of the passage sound.

  2. Too Negative2% picked this

    somewhat

    We're looking for positivity, since that's how the final three sentences of the passage sound. This answer makes it seem like the net effect of considering this idea is leaning away from supporting it. Somewhat skeptical is like, "I don't know, guys .... should we do this?" Our author seems much more enthused than that.

  3. Too Negative5% picked this

    Ambivalent means that the author has positive and negative feelings. We can't point to any negative feelings in the the final three sentences of the passage. The author doesn't seem deeply unsettled. She seems very on board, almost like she wrote this whole passage to promote the ideas that these legal reformers are proposing.

  4. Correct70% picked this

    strongly

    Why this is right

    The final three sentences say a bunch of positive things, and the author doesn't pepper in any negatives. "The compelling force can create a sense of empathy / shatter the complacency of the legal establishment / play a crucial, positive role in the process of legal reconstruction".

    Skill tested: Author's Attitude · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  5. Too Strong: unreservedly23% picked this

    unreservedly

    Usually on attitude questions there is an answer that goes too far in the correct direction. The idea of "unreservedly optimistic" is a little too idealistic and confident. We proposing a reform. The reformers say that these personal stories "may convince legal insiders for the first time to listen". The author says that "the engaging power of narrative might play a crucial, positive role". Unreservedly optimistic would be like, "This solution WILL work. It WILL play a crucial, positive role. I just know it, with no reservations whatsoever."

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free