Q12 - Humans' emotional tendencies are essentially

[mshinners]

Question Type:
Necessary Assumption

Stimulus Breakdown:
Our emotions as a species have never changed. Therefore, despite technology, we're no wiser.

Answer Anticipation:
This entire argument is about connecting emotions with wisdom. I'll leave open any answer connecting those two, and if there are more than one, dive deeper to check degree and directionality.

Correct answer:
(E)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Degree. This argument only cares about emotions and wisdom; bringing in all other changes drastically increases the scope/degree of the argument.

(B) Tempting! This answer would survive a first pass. However, the conclusion of the argument is relative ("more wisely") and this answer isn't; that's an issue because the conclusion doesn't claim people don't make wise decisions, but rather their wisdom as a species hasn't increased. Additionally, the conclusion is about humans generally, and this answer choice is about individuals.

(C) Too specific. While this answer does mention emotions and wisdom, it goes into detail with learning lessons from history. While that may be one way to increase wisdom, it's not the only way, and necessary assumption answers that state one specific way are wrong. Additionally, there's no information about whether humans are emotionally disposed to learn these lessons.

(D) Degree. This answer choice is too strong by saying emotions alone control choices. The argument can still work if humans rely, for example, primarily on emotions, but also on instinct.

(E) Bingo. This answer choice states that an essential change to emotions is necessary for making wiser choices. That means if we haven't had an essential change to emotion, we won't make wiser choices, and that makes this argument work. If we negate - emotional change is not necessary for making wiser decisions - the argument falls apart. If you got hung up on the strength of this answer vs. the conclusion, note that the conclusion uses "generally" to mean "as a species" here instead of "over 50% of the time", so it's actually quite strong.

Takeaway/Pattern:
The LSAT is throwing a lot more strong-conclusion/strong-answer Necessary Assumption questions on the test, so be on the lookout for it!

#officialexplanation

[ElizabethR216]

Is (E) also correct because it's basically the contrapositive of the argument outlined in the stimulus?

[ohthatpatrick]

Yes, when you see Nec Assump answer choices that are conditional, I would suggest, rather than negating them, that you just see whether they seem to match the Core.

"If there hasn't been an essential change in emotional dispositions, then we are not now able to make wiser choices".