LSAT Question Explanation
PT 118, Section 3, Question 23
Identify the RoleArgument structure
An aversion to living at the expense of other creatures may not be a sufficient reason to avoid eating meat, if we were to assume that meat is essential for human health.
Vegetarians claim that not eating meat is healthier and more ethical, and that both of those reasons are individually sufficient to become vegetarian. But hypothetically, if meat were essential for a healthy diet, then would the ethical consideration really be sufficient for people to avoid meat?
Explanation
This is a nuanced argument. The author doesn't tell us if they're for or against meat, they're just questioning whether ethical considerations alone are sufficient reason to become vegetarian.
If we make the assumption that meat is essential for human health, it becomes much tougher to say that concern for animals alone would convince many people to avoid meat. In this scenario they would become physically sick themselves. This indicates that concern for animals may not itself be enough to become a vegetarian, because the decision about whether or not to become a vegetarian would likely be influenced by health considerations.
So the author uses the supposition in the question stem to question whether or not concern for animals on it's own is sufficient to become a vegetarian.
Answer choices
This misses the point of the argument. The author never argues for or against eating meat. The conclusion was just that ethical concerns for animals may not be sufficient to become vegetarian.
If anything the supposition demonstrates the opposite of this answer choice. The hypothetical indicates that ethical concerns alone may not be enough to decide to become vegetarian, but rather may work in conjunction with health concerns when people decide to become vegetarian.
This is wrong because the statement is just a hypothetical situation. The author isn't trying to make a claim about whether a vegetarian diet is healthy or not healthy.
This is correct. If meat were essential for a healthy human diet, then it's very questionable that ethical concerns alone would be sufficient to convince people to become vegetarian.
The supposition doesn't try to show that there are no sufficient reasons to stop eating meat. Maybe health concerns are sufficient to stop eating meat.