Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe : Critical Reasoning (CR)

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Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe

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Joined: 01 Feb 2011

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Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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23 Feb 2011, 11:22

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Difficulty:

55% (hard)

Question Stats:

63% (01:53) correct

37% (02:18) wrong

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Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are more tolerant of unjust treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-rearing and pious. Moreover as most subjects believer that even the gods are on the side of the ruler, the subjects are less apt to move against him.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which Aristotle’s argument depends?

(A) The subjects of tyrannical rulers typically believe that there is a power other than the mortal.

(B) A tyrant cannot rule unless he has divine power on his side.

(C) The subjects of tyrannical rulers can rarely be fooled by appearances.

(D) Tyrants who are devoted to religion will not treat their subjects unjustly

(E) For a tyrant, the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion is a more effective means of ruling than unjust treatment.

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The ans is "A", can anyone explain why the answer should be A?

Spoiler: OA

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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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23 Feb 2011, 11:58

(A) The subjects of tyrannical rulers typically believe that there is a power other than the mortal.

What if the country were filled with people who did not believe in the gods? Then the argument put forth by Aristotle is destroyed. Hence A is the clear winner.

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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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23 Feb 2011, 18:33

Paraphrase - Tyrant is well advised to put on the display of piousness. Since the subjects are more tolerant toward a ruler whom they consider God fearing. Moreover as the subjects believe that even God is on the the side of the ruler, the subjects are less apt to go against the ruler.

(A) The subjects of tyrannical rulers typically believe that there is NOT NECESSARILY a power other than the mortal.

negation A destroys the argument, since the arg assumes that there is GOD. Hence it has to be A.

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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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23 Feb 2011, 19:31

A for sure. i'll go with the explanation given by gmat1220. But is this really LSAT CR? seems too easy and straightforward.
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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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25 Feb 2011, 22:44

(A) for me too. When you say LSAT is the source , what book are you referring to ?

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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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27 Feb 2011, 15:04

vinzycoolfire wrote:

A for sure. i'll go with the explanation given by gmat1220. But is this really LSAT CR? seems too easy and straightforward.

Not all LSAT questions are hard. The questions get more difficult towards the end of each logical reasoning section...

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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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27 Feb 2011, 16:36

longhorn07 wrote:

vinzycoolfire wrote:

A for sure. i'll go with the explanation given by gmat1220. But is this really LSAT CR? seems too easy and straightforward.

Not all LSAT questions are hard. The questions get more difficult towards the end of each logical reasoning section...

That explains it!! for a moment there i was under the illusion i was getting good at CR!! time to wake up i guess
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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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09 Aug 2015, 09:57

Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion.

Subjects are more tolerant of unjust treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-rearing and pious.
Moreover as most subjects believer that even the gods are on the side of the ruler, the subjects are less apt to move against him.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which Aristotle’s argument depends?

(A) The subjects of tyrannical rulers typically believe that there is a power other than the mortal.(This is the answer since this is the reason the subjects are less apt to move against him. Good for the tyrant.)
(B) A tyrant cannot rule unless he has divine power on his side. (tyrant is well advised to put on the appearance of devotion but he does not have powers.)
(C) The subjects of tyrannical rulers can rarely be fooled by appearances.(If so there is no use of putting on appearance.)
(D) Tyrants who are devoted to religion will not treat their subjects unjustly. (This is the belief of subjects in any case but not argument.)
(E) For a tyrant, the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion is a more effective means of ruling than unjust treatment. (Need not be assumed.)

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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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29 Sep 2017, 10:36

B,C,D are out of scope.
B is unnecessary, the tyrant ruler just needs to have a fake power from god.

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Re: Aristotle wrote that a tyrant would be well advised to put on the appe [#permalink]

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21 Oct 2018, 06:46

I think one of the options is to use negation: "The subjects of tyrannical rulers typically do not believe that there is a power other than the mortal". If that is the case subjects would not be tolerant to unjust treatment and would move against the ruler.
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