Critical Reasoning

Actual Source: LSAT

It is said that people should accept themselves as they are instead of being dissatisfied with their own abilities. But this is clearly a bad principle if the goal is a society whose citizens are genuinely happy, for no one can be genuinely happy if he or she is not pursuing personal excellence and is unwilling to undergo personal change of any kind.

Choice B is:
People who are not dissatisfied with themselves are less likely than others to pursue personal excellence.
OR
People who are satisfied with themselves are less likely than others to pursue personal excellence.
OR
IF People are satisfied, They are less likely to pursue personal excellence.

I can't understand how this is the assumption.

Got a PM to address this one:

Akhpad is very correct. This is an LSAT question. I often teach this one when I am leading an LSAT course. This has been included in the Veritas Critical Reasoning 2 book as an example of a very difficult example of an assumption question.

This is question that can test your reasoning skills.

Here is how I approach this one.

The conclusion is "But this is clearly a bad principle if the goal is a society whose citizens are genuinely happy" How about a translation?

What the conclusion means is that if the the society has a goal of making people genuinely happy, then it should not encourage people to accept themselves as they are, but rather should want them t be dissatisfied with their own abilities.

This is the opposite of the first sentence.

The reason why the conclusion is true, what I call the Most Important Premise (MIP) is "no one can be genuinely happy if he or she is not pursuing personal excellence and is unwilling to undergo personal change of any kind."

This type of assumption question is best done WITHOUT negating the answer choices. Negating the answer choices is one technique, but it is not the only technique and it can certainly slow people down and even confuse them on test day.

Another way to approach an assumption is to "bridge the gap." This means to think of the conclusion as a path from A to D. The premises will not get you from A to D. They will only take you part of the way. If you can identify the necessary premise that is missing then you have the assumption.

Take this question. The conclusion requires us to go from "people accept themselves as they are instead of being dissatisfied with their own abilities" all the way to this will not result in "citizens who are genuinely happy."

Now, where does the argument take us without the answer choices? The MIP says that no one can be genuinely happy if they are not pursuing personal excellence and if they are unwilling to change. So we can say that if we can show that citizens are not pursuing personal excellence we can say that they are not genuinely happy as per the MIP.

That means that we only need to get to "people will not pursue personal excellence nor undergo personal change and we can get to the conclusion." No where is our starting point? Well we are told that the bad policy is for people to accept themselves and not to be dissatisfied.

So basically the gap is this: We need to get from what we are told is the bad policy "people accepting themselves and not being dissatisfied" to the beginning of the chain that leads to the conclusion, "anyone who is not pursuing personal excellence and not changing."

If we have an answer choice that says,"those who are satisfied with their abilities and who accept themselves as they are DO NOT pursue personal excellence as often as those who are dissatisfied with their abilities then we have a Valid argument!

Choice B is just what we predicted. Those who are dissatisfied are the ones who pursue excellence. So now we have the entire argument. It is not a good policy to encourage people to be satisfied with themselves because they are less likely to pursue excellence and if you do not pursue excellence you will not be genuinely happy (which is our stated goal).

Bingo!

Thanks David, Is my below understanding right?

Conclusion:

if the the society has a goal of making people genuinely happy, then it should not encourage people to accept themselves as they are, but rather should want them t be dissatisfied with their own abilities
OR
IF citizens are genuinely happy, They should be dissatisfied with their own abilities.

Premise:
"for no one can be genuinely happy if he or she is not pursuing personal excellence and is unwilling to undergo personal change of any kind"
OR
IF genuinely happy, pursuing personal excellence AND willing to undergo personal change

Assumption:
IF They are likely to pursue personal excellence, People are dissatisfied
OR
IF People are satisfied, They are less likely to pursue personal excellence

This is same as B.

Your understanding is pretty good on this tough question. Let me sort through the options you have listed here...

Conclusion:

if the the society has a goal of making people genuinely happy, then it should not encourage people to accept themselves as they are, but rather should want them t be dissatisfied with their own abilities
OR
IF citizens are genuinely happy, They should be dissatisfied with their own abilities.

Definitely the first of these two which I have put in bold.. As you can see from the actual question, which you have posted above, the conclusion is "But this is clearly a bad principle if the goal is a society whose citizens are genuinely happy" You can see that we have the condition "If the goal is a society whose citizens are genuinely happy" if this condition is satisfied then we can say that it is a bad principle for people to accept themselves.

So basically just what you have said in your first option.

Premise:
"for no one can be genuinely happy if he or she is not pursuing personal excellence and is unwilling to undergo personal change of any kind"
OR
IF genuinely happy, pursuing personal excellence AND willing to undergo personal change

Again, the first option, which I have placed in bold. This is exactly what is said in the argument.

Assumption:
IF They are likely to pursue personal excellence, People are dissatisfied
OR
IF People are satisfied, They are less likely to pursue personal excellence

This time it is your second option. If we connect the dots we see that if only it were true that people who are satisfied are less likely to pursue excellence then we can see that they will not be truly happy! And that is choice B.

Hi,

It is an old thread. Can anyone please comment on A and D ?

For (A), i thought that this answer is bridging the gap, but it is not.

YellowSapphire wrote:It is said that people should accept themselves as they are instead of being dissatisfied with their own abilities. But this is clearly a bad principle if the goal is a society whose citizens are genuinely happy, for no one can be genuinely happy if he or she is not pursuing personal excellence and is unwilling to undergo personal change of any kind.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

A: Those who are willing to change will probably find genuine happiness.
B: People who are not dissatisfied with themselves are less likely than others to pursue personal excellence.
C: Personal excellence cannot be acquired by those who lack genuine confidence in their own abilities.
D: People are justified in feeling content with themselves when have achieved some degree of personal excellence.
E: Happiness is not genuine unless it is based is on something that is painful to obtain.

It is said that people should accept themselves as they are instead of being dissatisfied with their own abilities. But this is clearly a bad principle if the goal is a society whose citizens are genuinely happy.
Conclusion: satisfaction with one's abilities --> not happy.

For no one can be genuinely happy if he or she is not pursuing personal excellence.
Premise: not pursuing personal excellence --> not happy.

The only known fact is that not pursuing personal excellence leads to not happy.
Thus, to yield not happy, we must proceed through the statement in blue.

The argument concludes that satisfaction with one's abilities leads to not happy.
This conclusion is valid only if satisfaction with one's abilities is linked to the statement in blue, as follows:
satisfaction with one's abilities --> not pursuing personal excellence --> not happy.

Thus, the argument assumes the following:
satisfaction with one's abilities --> not pursuing personal excellence.
Option B correctly states this assumption:
People who are not dissatisfied with themselves are less likely than others to pursue personal excellence.

The correct answer is B.