Q26 - Philosopher: A person is morally responsible

[smiller]

Question Type:
Inference

Stimulus Breakdown:
morally responsible for action → action performed freely
action performed freely → alternative genuinely open
alternative genuinely open → alternative not morally wrong

Answer Anticipation:
If you understand what “only if” indicates in a conditional statement, the stimulus provides a fairly straightforward chain of logic.

Watch out for illegal reversals and illegal negations in the answers.

Correct answer:
(E)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Illegal negation: not morally responsible for action → alternative not genuinely open
Also, in our stimulus the action for which one is morally responsible is not the same as the alternative action. The stimulus describes an alternative to the action for which one is morally responsible.

(B) Out of scope: We don’t know if anything in the stimulus is describing “most” of the actions that a person performs.

(C) Illegal negation: alternative genuinely open → morally responsible for action

(D) Unsupported: This is similar to the last sentence in the stimulus, but that sentence is specifically about alternative actions, not any action. Even without that, choice (D) reverses the statements but only negates one.

(E) Correct: This is a contrapositive of statements we can link in the stimulus

alternative morally wrong → alternative not genuinely open → action not performed freely

Takeaway/Pattern:
If you can quickly eliminate answers like (B), (D), and even (A) without considering the conditional logic, you'll be left with two or three answers that you might need to diagram. Diagramming can be the final step that lets you see exactly why the remaining answers are wrong, and seeing why the remaining answers are wrong enables you to confidently select the correct answer.

#officialexplanation

[letslsat]

Isn't an action performed freely different from an action that is free? I diagrammed them separately.

Also, E neglected the "performing" part, which is why I hesitated to choose it.

[smiller]

Isn't an action performed freely different from an action that is free? I diagrammed them separately.

Also, E neglected the "performing" part, which is why I hesitated to choose it.

It's hard to think of an example where an action that is performed freely couldn't also be described as an action that is free. If an action is performed freely because you're not being compelled to do it, we could describe that action as free, meaning not under the control or power of another.

To view "free" and "performed freely" as having different meanings, we need to know specific details about the actions. For example, if one person says, "I saw the show for free," and another says, "I freely confessed to committing the crime," they mean different things. But Question 26 doesn't use the terms in a way that allows us to make that kind of distinction.

The LSAT requires us to read very literally and consider the precise meaning of words, so it's great that you're thinking about this. I just don't see how we can draw a clear enough line between "performed freely" and "free" in this particular LR question to say that they mean different things.

[krisk743]

I chose A over E and obviously screwed it up. When I don't write out the contra positive as well and be redundant, I screw up sometimes.

However, can you show how to diagram E? I was thrown off by the "not morally wrong" part. Unless = if not. But do you negate EVERYTHING that comes after if not?

I'm assuming the way you get to Morally Wrong > ~AAO > ~PF is that the unless negates everything after it. Is that right? Also, if that's the case, do you read it from end, to front? For example could E have been wrong if after unless NOT morally wrong was written before there is alternative action?


I had this chained perfectly but just misread A and was confused on E saying "not morally wrong"