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

[Adam Tyson]

Thanks for asking, Jessica. It looks like your grasp of the stimulus is a good one, and your analysis of the answer choices is, for the most part, not bad (although look at answer E, and the importance of "in any situation" - could that person be afraid at times when others would not be afraid, and then face that fear and thus be courageous in that situation?)

What's missing from your analysis, at least in your post, is your prephrase. What did you decide the answer had to be, or say, or do, before you looked at any answer choices? That's the key here. Without a strong prephrase, all sorts of lousy answers might look good, and good ones can look bad, because the authors of this test are brilliant at disguising their answers. Look at the stimulus again, and then, with no reference whatsoever to any answer choice (in fact, cover them up so you cannot see them), come up with your own answer. Here's a hint - when faced with a conditional claim in the stimulus and a Must Be True question stem, the contrapositive is a great prephrase and often will be the right answer.

Give that a shot and come back to us to tell us how it went. Did the right answer look much more attractive than before? Did the losers look worse? They should!

Looking forward to seeing how that goes. Go get it!

[LearntheLSAT]

Hi PS,

I selected answer C, as some others had, and I would like to know how the PS team would have diagrammed because I believe mine is off. I never made a logical chain that connected all the premises, and I was wondering if I should have made some connection I wasn't.

I diagrammed as:
FD (fear danger) -> CP (certain pleasure) -> No courage
Contra: Courage -> No CP No fear of danger

C (courage) -> obtain goal -> preserves in fear of danger

Where did I go wrong?

Thank you!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi LearntheLSAT,

There is a simple reason unrelated to diagramming why answer choice C cannot be correct. The stimulus only discusses what motives are necessary to constitute courage in individual circumstances. The stimulus never discusses what it means, or what would be required, to be a "courageous person" in a more general sense. In other words, the stimulus only gives us the pieces to conclude that certain actions(accompanied by certain motives) are courageous or not courageous. The stimulus doesn't give us the broader material to conclude that certain persons (on the whole) are courageous or not courageous.

Diagramming here is difficult, because the conditions are complex. Here are some suggestions:

Sentence 1: Face danger solely for pleasure ~Courage
Sentence 1 Contrapositive: Courage ~Face danger solely for pleasure

Sentence 2: Courage Act to attain goal AND Persevere in the face of fear of danger
Sentence 2 Contrapositive: ~Act to attain goal OR ~Persevere in the face of fear of danger ~Courage

There is no link between these two sentences, because the positive (non-negated) form of "Courage" is a sufficient condition in both.

Notice how answer choice D is a paraphrase of the Sentence 2 original conditional statement, because it states that fear is a necessary condition for courage, just like fear is part of the second necessary condition for courage in Sentence 2 (must persevere in the face of fear to exhibit real courage).

I hope this helps!

Jeremy