LSAT 157 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q13

LR Question 13 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Political theorist: The purpose of government is to prevent…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: If most individuals take a reasoned approach to getting what they want, the power of government should be less.

REASONING: The purpose of government is to prevent individuals from injuring others in the pursuit of their own welfare.

ANALYSIS: The author has defined the role of government, and then concluded that in a given situation the power of government should be less.

Based on the role we’re given (preventing people from injuring others), it would make sense to say that the power of government should be less if people didn’t do anything to injure each other. But that isn’t what we have. We’re missing evidence that people who take a reasoned approach will injure others less in their pursuit of welfare. This is the necessary assumption that we need.

___________

1. This isn’t an assumption required by the argument. Even if governments can, by themselves, convince people to take the reasonable approach, the conclusion is true.
2. Remember the negation test. If we negate this answer, we get “Government can only serve its purpose by diminishing people’s ability to promote their own welfare”. This is not incompatible with the conclusion, so the answer can’t be necessary.
3. CORRECT. See above. If people who take a reasoned approach aren’t less likely to injure others, the conclusion can’t be drawn.
4. This doesn’t have anything to do with the conclusion. We want to know if people taking a reasoned approach will injure others.
5. This has some of the right words, but doesn’t get us where we want. It tells us that people who care more about their own welfare get injured less. But we want to see that people with a reasoned approach will injure others less.

Recap: The question begins with “Political theorist: The purpose of government is to prevent”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn how to master LSAT Necessary questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.