Kim: In northern Europe

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct74% picked this

   An increase in life expectancy in a population often gives rise to economic changes that, in turn,

   Why this is right

   This allows Kim to say, "You don't have to be aware of your growing life expectancy in order for it to change your attitudes. It's possible that increasing life expectancy causes economic changes that then change your attitude." Again, it's rare for an LSAT problem to go after someone's premise, but it's not unheard of (and not "against the rules" -- there are no rules). There are about 5-8 problems total in LSAT's history where the correct answer goes after the legitimacy of a premise. When such a thing happens, the premise being attacked is a very extreme opinion or dubious prediction.

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

   74%
2. B

   No Impact10% picked this

   Present-day psychologists have noted that people’s attitudes toward life can change in response to information

   This objection doesn't seem relevant to Lee's argument, because Lee is thinking that, "Sure, nowadays we might have good enough demographic stats that we could be affected by information about life expectancy. But in the 1700s, they wouldn't have been able to to crunch the numbers and spread information about increasing life expectancy." In other words, Lee's rebuttal wasn't saying that "information about life expectancy can't affect attitudes". It was saying, "These people in the 1700s didn't have information about life expectancy. So how could it affect their attitudes?"

   10%
3. C

   No Impact2% picked this

   Philosophers in northern Europe during the eighteenth century made many conjectures that did not affect the ideas of

   The correct answer needs to help Kim argue that "increases in life expectancy did result in changing attitudes about death in the population at large and about the human condition among philosophers". This is talking about whether "changing attitudes among philosophers did / didn't result in affecting ideas of the population at large". Kim was never claiming there was / wasn't any causal connection there.

   2%
4. D

   Strengthens Lee8% picked this

   The concept of life expectancy is based on statistical theories that had not been developed

   This supports Lee's assumption that in the early 18th century, people would not have been aware that their life expectancy had increased (since that concept hadn't even been developed yet).

   8%
5. E

   Strengthens Lee, if anything6% picked this

   Before the eighteenth century the attitudes of northern Europeans were more likely to be determined by religious teaching

   Technically we don't really care what was happening before the 18th century. But given that this answer is saying that changing attitudes more likely to result from religious teaching than from demographic phenomena (such as a changing life expectancy), it would only potentially help Lee to argue that Kim's explanation seems unlikely, since the explanation is saying that a demographic phenomenon caused the changing attitudes.

   6%