PrepTest 137, Section 4, Question 7
Even though MacArthur's diet book helped many people(50 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(10 more words not shown)
- AOne should not(17 more words not shown)
- BOne should not(18 more words not shown)
- COne should publish(20 more words not shown)
- DOne should not(23 more words not shown)
- EOne should not(26 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Losing weight sounds like a benefit. Damaging people's health sounds like a cost. How do we get from those two facts to 'MacArthur should not have published the book'?
The argument hasn't compared the size of the benefit with the size of the harm. Imagine a diet that helps a million people but harms a small group, or one that helps a small group but harms a million. Simply saying 'many' people benefited and 'many' were harmed doesn't settle that comparison.
MacArthur's medical training gives us another fact: MacArthur knew, or should have known, that the recommended diet was unhealthy. But we still need a rule connecting that knowledge with the decision not to publish.
What we’re looking for
The question lets us supply a principle to help justify the reasoning. We could bypass the unanswered cost-benefit comparison with a rule against publishing advice that the author knows, or ought to know, is unhealthy. Then the stated harm and knowledge would give us a reason not to publish, even though the diet helped people lose weight.
Working the answers
- A
This is close, but its conditions go beyond the facts. It requires knowing that an action would seriously damage many people's health. The argument establishes damage, without specifying that it was serious, and says MacArthur either knew or should have known. We can't automatically replace those facts with actual knowledge of serious damage.
- B
This concerns someone following a method that might damage their own health. That would address a reader deciding whether to follow the diet. Our conclusion concerns MacArthur's decision to publish the advice. A rule for the reader doesn't directly justify that conclusion about the publisher.
- C
This recommends publishing beneficial advice that causes no harm. The book here did cause harm, so it doesn't meet the condition. And a rule saying when to publish doesn't establish that every book outside that category should be withheld.
- D
This requires knowing that the proposed method can achieve its goal. The goal here is weight loss, and the passage says the diet helped many people lose weight. The objection isn't that MacArthur offered a method that couldn't work; it's that the method was unhealthy. D addresses the wrong concern.
- ECorrect
The recommended course of action is eating the diet with very small portions of fruits and vegetables. MacArthur knew or ought to have known that this was unhealthy. E says that under exactly those circumstances, one should not publish the recommendation. That supplies the connection from the facts about health and knowledge to the conclusion about publication.
More Strengthen questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Strengthen questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.