LSAT 130 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q12

LR Question 12 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: City councilperson: Many city residents oppose the city

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: The stone edifice is art.

REASONING: The purpose of art is to make experts debate ideas. This edifice has caused debate.

ANALYSIS: Here there is a gap between art, and the purpose of art. All we know about the edifice is that it fulfills the purpose of art.

If we add a statement that anything fulfilling the purpose of art is art, then we can prove the conclusion:

Stone edifice → fulfills purpose → is art

I didn’t draw this in advance to solve the question. I am just drawing it to clearly show the relation between the terms.

___________

1. This shows us that the edifice meets a necessary condition of being art, but it doesn’t prove that the object is art.
2. This weakens the argument by showing that no expert can be certain the edifice is art.
3. This shows we should make the purchase. But the conclusion was about whether the edifice was art, not whether to buy it.
4. CORRECT. See the analysis above. We already know the edifice is fulfilling the purpose of art by causing debate. So if this answer is true, then the edifice is art.
5. The conclusion was about whether the edifice was art, not about whether to buy it.