LSAT 108 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q14

LR Question 14 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Essayist: Some researchers criticize British …

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: There have probably been extraterrestrial spacecraft seen near Earth.

REASONING: British security agencies don’t release much info about UFO sightings, and requests from civilian researchers are ignored.

ANALYSIS: You might have noticed they use two terms: UFOs and extraterrestrial spacecraft.

That’s not a flaw but I wanted to touch on it quickly. UFO just means an unidentified flying object. It means we’re not sure what it is. So these British agencies don’t give us info about UFO sightings.

The conclusion is about extraterrestrial spacecraft. That means alien spacecraft.

Essentially, they’re saying: the government won’t tell us what’s going on with these unidentified flying objects (UFOs). So there’s probably been sightings of alien spacecraft near Earth.

The issue with that is that governments hide information for lots of reasons. It could be for national security, avoiding public panic, etc.

So to strengthen the argument, we want something that makes the connection more plausible: Government secrecy -> extraterrestrial spacecraft

___________

1. This actually weakens the argument. If the government is secretive about everything, then secrecy about UFOs isn’t special and doesn’t suggest aliens.
2. CORRECT. The government is withholding information. This gives us: Withhold UFO information → Established aliens. That proves the conclusion.
3. Too broad to help us. Something to hide could be military aircraft, surveillance methods, new technology, embarrassing mistakes, etc. It doesn’t specifically point to aliens.
4. Also weakens the argument. It gives another reason for denying civilian requests, so it’s an alternative explanation that weakens the alien hypothesis.
5. Again, this could simply reflect a general policy of denial. It doesn’t suggest alien spacecraft.