#25- To face danger solely because doing so affords one a

[rachue]

I got this one correct but I'm trying to understand why C can't also be a correct answer. If this is a MBT question, and C is a premise already stated within the stimulus, must it also be true, too?

[Dave Killoran]

How are you interpreting that (C) is stated in the stimulus? I think I know why, but I want you to analyze it like you would on the LSAT and tell me what you are seeing, and why it might be wrong.

Look carefully at the words in the stimulus and answer choice (C)...there's a clue there

Thanks!

[ay514]

I had a hard time choosing between choice D and E. I thought E was too extreme .. "courageous in any situation..." Is that the right reasoning behind why E is incorrect? I was also hesitant about D because it talked bout benefiting others which was not in the stimulus but I eventually replaced "benefiting others" with "attaining a goal." I just wanted to double check to see if my train of thought is right. Thank you!

[Steve Stein]

This author's first point is that facing danger for pleasure is not necessarily courageous (bungee jumping, for example, would probably not exemplify courage from this author's perspective).

True courage, the author explains, requires that someone be:
1) acting toward a goal; and
2) persevering despite fear of danger

Correct answer choice (D) says that someone who has met the first of the two criteria still needs the second.

Incorrect answer choice (E), as you said, goes farther than is justified by the information provided, since it deals with what a person fears, rather than the real issue of whether a person is persevering toward a goal in spite of his or her fears of whatever danger may be present.

[SLF]

With regard to LSAT #54, Section #2, Question #25, I would appreciate some insight into "processing" this problem.

I diagrammed the stimulus as follows:

danger affords pleasure !courageous
Contrapositive: courageous !danger affords pleasure

and...

real courage perseveres in face of fear prompted by dangers
contrapositive: !perseveres in face of fear prompted by dangers !real courage

Once I had this, then answer choice C seemed to match the first rule listed above...and so I selected that answer choice...and then crossed off the others for the following reasons:

A) "future pain" didn't seem like something that could be inferred from the passage.
B) "some aspects" didn't seem to cover all the bases.
D) "benefiting others" didn't seem like something that could be inferred from the passage.
E) seemed like an extension gone too far.

Given that 'D' is the correct answer, my processing and reasoning is obviously incorrect. So, how should I have processed this instead?

[Lucas Moreau]

Hello, SLF,

You made just about the tiniest mistake possible in your diagram, which is good news of a sort. It's not that courageous people never derive pleasure from facing dangers, it's that courage is not determined solely by the fact of someone facing dangers because he derives pleasure from doing so.

Basically, if someone struggles through fear inspired by danger and still perseveres in his goal, then that person is courageous, even if that person also derived pleasure from facing those dangers.

If I have to wrestle a grizzly bear to stop it from attacking someone, and I'm terrified but I do it anyway, that counts as courageous, even if I'm secretly a grizzly-bear-wrestling aficionado who just gets a huge kick out of wrestling grizzlies. At least according to the stimulus.

So for this reason C is immediately disqualified, and D becomes highlighted as the best answer. The fear of danger is a necessary condition of being courageous, so without that fear, there is no courage. The fact of benefit to others is irrelevant, a red herring.

Hope that helps,
Lucas Moreau
PowerScore

[SLF]

Thanks so much. I really appreciate your thoughtful response.

[eober]

Hi,

Answer choice D states that "a person who faces danger in order to benefit others is acting...", I am confused how we can infer the part it says "in order to benefit others" from the stimulus. Shouldn't it be explicitly stated in the stimulus?

Thanks!

[David Boyle]

Hi,

Answer choice D states that "a person who faces danger in order to benefit others is acting...", I am confused how we can infer the part it says "in order to benefit others" from the stimulus. Shouldn't it be explicitly stated in the stimulus?

Thanks!

Hello eober,

No, it just seems to serve as one "goal" that the courage is serving.

Hope this helps,
David

[jessicamorehead]

I cannot grasp this one for the life of me.

I diagrammed the rules as:

P: only reason pleasure --> NOT courage
P: courage --> acting towards goal AND perseveres despite fear of danger

Here is how I looked at the answer choices

A) "A person who" = sufficient, in order to = sufficient. Don't know how to diagram this. I crossed off because I didn't know what "future pain" would fall under.

B) I diagrammed as experiences fear --> NO courage. Not sure why wrong.

C) happens to derive pleasure from some dangerous act --> NOT courageous. I crossed this off because our first premise says the ONLY reason is pleasure.

D) I cannot figure out how this would be diagrammed. What is it even saying? And why is it right?

E) NO fear --> NOT courageous I felt like this was a CP of the second premise.... so I picked this one.

Could someone please diagram each answer choice so I can see how it is supposed to be done? I had no idea how to diagram most of the answer choices and also explain why it is wrong/right?!