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trojanfan06 wrote:I'm still not quite getting it. I see the conclusion about "money does not exist" but I don't see the 2 premises and how choice A links a premise to a conclusion...

Atlas LSAT Teacher wrote:Yeah, it's a tricky one. I agree with The Lucky One that this is not well-treated through diagramming. In general I find diagramming hurts more students than it helps.

As you're reading missing assumption questions, your mind should be constantly looking for the gap. The conclusion is that money does not exist. The proof: we could make it disappear if we all stopped believing in it. What's not said is why this proves it doesn't exist. Maybe things can disappear when we stop believing in it but still be considered to exist right now (or perhaps existing can continue once you disappear? invisible ink, for example). Regardless, in this problem, there's an assumption that this phenomenon proves something is not real, and so we're assuming that a real thing would react differently to us not believing in it.

(A) fills the gap quite nicely, while (B) doesn't help the argument since it would only show that money does not exist if it was proven that we have a mistaken belief about money. BTW, the fact that we're mistaken about money doesn't count as the mistaken belief, as that would be circular and, more importantly, the conclusion isn't actually that there's a mistaken belief about money, just that it doesn't exist (it's never explicitly mentioned that we all think it does exist).

An analogous argument might be: I know that Patty is kind because if we all teased her, she would cry. For that argument to be drawn properly we'd need to know that our kindness litmus test really works: that if she were not kind and we teased her, she would not cry.

I hope that clears it up.

- Noah

Wow, I have never had such a difficult time figuring out the question. I usually see how the correct answers work, but this one just didn't make sense. I think it's the hardest question I have ever seen on this test.

WWAD wrote:

Atlas LSAT Teacher wrote:Yeah, it's a tricky one. I agree with The Lucky One that this is not well-treated through diagramming. In general I find diagramming hurts more students than it helps.

As you're reading missing assumption questions, your mind should be constantly looking for the gap. The conclusion is that money does not exist. The proof: we could make it disappear if we all stopped believing in it. What's not said is why this proves it doesn't exist. Maybe things can disappear when we stop believing in it but still be considered to exist right now (or perhaps existing can continue once you disappear? invisible ink, for example). Regardless, in this problem, there's an assumption that this phenomenon proves something is not real, and so we're assuming that a real thing would react differently to us not believing in it.

(A) fills the gap quite nicely, while (B) doesn't help the argument since it would only show that money does not exist if it was proven that we have a mistaken belief about money. BTW, the fact that we're mistaken about money doesn't count as the mistaken belief, as that would be circular and, more importantly, the conclusion isn't actually that there's a mistaken belief about money, just that it doesn't exist (it's never explicitly mentioned that we all think it does exist).

An analogous argument might be: I know that Patty is kind because if we all teased her, she would cry. For that argument to be drawn properly we'd need to know that our kindness litmus test really works: that if she were not kind and we teased her, she would not cry.

I hope that clears it up.

- Noah

Wow, I have never had such a difficult time figuring out the question. I usually see how the correct answers work, but this one just didn't make sense. I think it's the hardest question I have ever seen on this test.

I am so glad you bumped this to the top because this was killing me, but this is the best explanation. Money does not exist, so it goes away if we don't believe in it. So something that DOES exist would stay around no matter how we feel about it.

WWAD wrote: I am so glad you bumped this to the top because this was killing me, but this is the best explanation. Money does not exist, so it goes away if we don't believe in it. So something that DOES exist would stay around no matter how we feel about it.