Logical Reasoning

PT152 · S4 · Q18 Etiquette helps people to get along

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Etiquette helps people to get along with each other.

Facts

causal: Etiquette helps people to get along, by preventing people from accidentally offending one another.

opinion: Many people think etiquette has no beneficial effects, while also thinking that kindness and social harmony are good.

Evaluate

Inference questions are all about synthesizing ideas. The first two ideas could be combined to yield, , since we know that "E helps to do X, by doing Y". That signifies that "Y and X have some causal connection".

The second sentence has some overlapping concepts with the first sentence, because they both bring up etiquette, and they both bring up people getting along / social harmony.

There seems to be an inherent contradiction in the opinions of these "many people": they think that etiquette does nothing beneficial, but they also think social harmony is beneficial.

Since etiquette helps bring about social harmony, it sounds like they're wrong in their thinking.

Goal

Look for an answer that suggests that the two beliefs these people have are in conflict, given the thing we were told about etiquette in the first sentence.

18.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following?

  1. Many people who criticize etiquette

    Only One View

    This is a super tempting answer choice and there is no accident that it's (A). (Beware on Inference questions the traps they often lay with choice A. If it sounds like what you were thinking we were going for, make sure you read all five answers before picking it. When they know we have a guess already brewing in our heads, they like to write a slightly broken version of that and put it in the first answer spot). If all the statements in the paragraph were true, some of them would contradict. But ... the people who criticize etiquette don't have contradictory views about etiquette. An example of contradictory views about etiquette would be: "Etiquette was not taught until the 1500s" paired with "Etiquette has been taught for the last 1000 years". These people actually only have one view about etiquette: Etiquette has no beneficial effects for society In order for them to have contradictory views about etiquette, they would need to ALSO be saying that "etiquette is sometimes useful / helpful for society." But we only know about one view they have about etiquette, so there's no way for them to have contradictory views. We know, in a sense, "these people have an INCORRECT VIEW about etiquette", given what we know about etiquette in the first sentence. However, that's different from saying "these people have CONTRADICTORY VIEWS about etiquette".

    33% picked this

  2. Many people have respect for

    Unsupported: respect

    The only thing we know about "many people" is criticize etiquette because they think it has no upside. We were never told that they still have respect for etiquette, so we have no support for this answer.

    7% picked this

  3. Correct

    Many people who criticize etiquette

    Why this is right

    This is a softer, more accurate version of (A). They say etiquette has no beneficial effects for society, but we are told that etiquette helps people get along with each other (beneficial effect for society) and prevents people from inadvertently offending each other (beneficial effect). If we were nervous about picking this because we feel like we're "adding too much of our outside thinking" to say that "helping people get along with each other" is "beneficial to society", then we've been doing LSAT too long. :) I definitely had that qualm, but then reminded myself that this is Most Supported (not Must Be True) and that "helps = benefits" every day of the week. "Getting along with each other" certainly seems relevant to "society". Put those together and it basically is a Must Be True inference.

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

    51% picked this

  4. If people were more considerate

    Too Strong: no need for etiquette

    If we were told that "Because people aren't as considerate as they could be, etiquette is useful", then we can flip that into an inference like "If people were more considerate, then there would be less need for etiquette". But we didn't talk about being inconsiderate at all. (Inadvertently offending someone is not being inconsiderate.) And making a counterfactual in which "there is NO need for etiquette" is a strong idea we don't have support for.

    0% picked this

  5. Kindness and social harmony are

    Trap

    Opinion vs. Fact Too Strong: highly beneficial Inference questions expect us to distinguish between opinions and facts. "Many people" think that kindness and social harmony are good. We can't go from that to the more loaded factual claim that "kindness and social harmony are highly beneficial to society".

    9% picked this

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