Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT134 S1 Q23 Explanation

Ethicist: Marital vows often contain

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsSufficient Assumption

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Stimulus

Ethicist: Marital vows often contain the promise to love “until death do us part.” If “love” here refers to a feeling, then this promise makes no sense, for feelings are not within one’s control, and a promise to do something not within one’s control makes no sense. “love” in this context to be referring to feelings.

What this question is testing

Sufficient Assumption

Your task

Find the assumption that, if added, guarantees the conclusion follows.

Common trap

Answers that only partly bridge the gap, leaving the conclusion unproven.

Winning move

Identify the new term in the conclusion and pick the choice that links it to the evidence.

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

The question
23.

The ethicist’s conclusion follows logically if which one of the following

Answer choices

  1. Premise Support5% picked this

    None of our feelings are within

    This supports the second F ? ~OC premise in the argument.

  2. Out of Scope - Role Switch24% picked this

    People should not make promises to do something that is not

    This answer is about what things people should make promises to do, while the argument is about how people should interpret those promises.

  3. Too Weak17% picked this

    “Love” can legitimately be taken to refer to something other

    This does not go far enough to establish that "love" should not be taken to refer to feeling. this does not rule out the possibility that "love" can also be taken to refer to feelings.

  4. Correct48% picked this

    Promises should not be interpreted in such a way that they

    Why this is right

    This bridged the MS gap between the first premise and the conclusion

    Skill tested: Sufficient Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  5. Premise Support5% picked this

    Promises that cannot be kept do not make

    This supports the ~OC ? ~MS third premise in the argument.

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