Q16 - Essayist: wisdom and intelligence are

[rustyjkent]

Why is answer (D) better than answer (C)?

Thank you

[cyruswhittaker]

The correct choice must be false, and it must be false based on the statements in the passage. The correct answer is (D).

Choice D:

The essayist says that she has met people who have "one or the other of these qualities." Thus, since we know this statement is true (as dictated by the question stem), answer choice (D) must be false: there must be at least one person who is either wise or intelligent.

Choice C:

The essayist's conclusion is that being wise and being intelligent do not necessarily go together. Her justification is her own experience. From this, we cannot infer that noone is both wise and intelligent. Her conclusion does not imply such a claim, and her support does not constitute the validity of such a wide generalization.

[mcrittell]

still don't get how D applies

[Yourchoice]

^ I'm going to take a stab at this even though you probably don't need an answer any more.

From the question stem, we're going to take everything that the essayist is saying to be true. Including the fact that he knows people that are wise (but not intelligent), and vice versa.

(D) claims that no one is either wise or is intelligent. This can essentially translate to: EVERYONE is either both wise & intelligent or EVERYONE has neither wisdom or intelligence.

But the author has stated that he/she knows people that have just one of the two choices!

Hope this clears things up.

[timmydoeslsat]

^ I'm going to take a stab at this even though you probably don't need an answer any more.

From the question stem, we're going to take everything that the essayist is saying to be true. Including the fact that he knows people that are wise (but not intelligent), and vice versa.

(D) claims that no one is either wise or is intelligent. This can essentially translate to: EVERYONE is either both wise & intelligent or EVERYONE has neither wisdom or intelligence.

But the author has stated that he/she knows people that have just one of the two choices!

Hope this clears things up.

The statement that no one is either wise or intelligent means that there is not one person with even one of those qualities.

It is not true that the statement no one is either wise or intelligent could mean that someone may have both. That is an impossibility. That statement must mean that everyone has neither quality.


To negate an either or statement, we must rule out three possibilities.

Either A or B:

1) A occurs, B does not.
2) B occurs, A does not.
3) A and B occurs.

To negate the either or, we must be able to show that it cannot also be true that both could occur. So what we are really saying is that no one does any of the three listed items. That is the fundamental reason why that statement means that no one has even one of those qualities.

[u2manish]

Hi there,

Could you please help us in diagramming this one(along with answer choices). It will be much of an help. Cheers.

Best,m

[timmydoeslsat]

I --/-> W

W --/-> I

Note: --/-> = Is not required

The other sentence states essentially that one person has documented some people being I or W, not both.

So let's see what must be false:

A) Most people neither I or W. This can be true. We need to think that the only information we have is what one person has witnessed among some people.

B) Same issue as A.

C) Too strong. We know that from one person's witness accounts that this is something not occurring. But does this hold for other people that he has possibly not encountered? That possibility makes this a could be true situation.

D) No one is either W or I. Must be false. We know that there is a case of someone being at least one or the other. Look at the last sentence of the stimulus. We have that situation occurring.

E) Perfectly consistent with the essayist's statements. Definitely not something that must be false.

[giladedelman]

Good explanation! For the non-diagram folks out there:

Remember that the four wrong answers all "could be true." Any answer that could go either way fits into this category.

(A) could go either way. It could be true that most people are neither, or it could be false. The statements don't tell us anything about the tendencies in the general population.

(B) is out for the same reason. We only know about the people the essayist has met, not about people in general. Maybe this is true.

(C) is no good because, as mentioned in an earlier post, we only know that the essayist has not met anyone who is both intelligent and wise. It could totally be true that there's no one out there who has both characteristics.

(D) CANNOT be true. The essayist has personally met intelligent people and wise people. So there are wise people and intelligent people out in the world somewhere.

(E) can definitely be true. The statements say that being intelligent does not mean you're wise, so there may be many intelligent but unwise people.

[donghai819]

For the answer choice D, does the "either" "or" include the possibility that one person can have both personalities?

Thanks in advance

[donghai819]

Hi folks,

I have two questions: does the last sentence imply everyone the author has one of the two personalities? I also have trouble understanding what D means.

Would any teacher like to help?

Thanks in advance.

[maryadkins]

The last sentence means that the author meets people who are either wise or intelligent but not both. We don't need to know whether she means all of the people she meets or only some of them in order to choose (D).

(D) says "either...or" which means there is no one person who has ONE of the qualities. In other words, there is no person on earth who is wise, and no one who is intelligent, either. It is false because the author has met people who do have one of the qualities.

[MaryS672]

I'm a bit confused by a language discrepancy that I noticed in this problem and the previous question, #15 about dinosaurs. Both questions stems are "CBT except" which I interpreted to be must be false, as described above. However, in the previous question, the "CBT except" was explained as not necessarily false NOT must be false and that is why answer choice D as apposed to E for #15 was the correct answer. Now in this problem, CBT except means must be false. Can someone explain why "CBT except" has two different meanings? I'm confused by the wording now.

[ZZ927]

Hi Dear LSAT masters:

I found this question a very good example to understand either... or and Neither ... nor. While I wrote out the detail, I wonder if anyone would double check for me please?

P1: I :dbl: ~W
Because it is a biconditional, hence it needs to be broken down in two ways:
(1) ~I W
1. ~I W
2. ~W I
3. W & I (but the author explicitly said not both, hence this possibility is eliminated)
MBF: (4 Could be True, 1 Must be False)
(2) I ~W
1. I ~W
2. W ~I
3. ~I & ~W (but the stimulus provides a biconditional, this possibility is also eliminated. Because regardless of which sufficient, ~I and ~W situation just cannot occur.

A. People :most: ( ~I + ~W ). This can be further devided into :most: ~I (Possible), :most: ~w (also possible)
B. People :most: I +W (could be true answer choice, hence eliminated) same as answer choice A, further divide into :most: I, :most: W. both possible answer choices.
C. ~(W+I) => W → ~I (No A is B = A is ~B = ~(W + I) coincides with the premise 1, hence eliminated)
D. ~ (~W → I) => ~W + ~I
I arrived this conclusion by breaking it down as following:
No A is B = A ~B
either Wise or Intelligent = ~W I
B = (either wise or intelligent)
~B = ~(either wise or intelligent)
= ~(~W I)
= ~W & ~I
E. People (I + ~W) (could be true answer choice, hence eliminated)

Correct? Thank you in advance for your instruction! Looking forward to hearing back from you!