LSAT 102 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q22

LR Question 22 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: It is an absurd idea that whatever artistic endeavor…

QUESTION TYPE: Parallel Reasoning

CONCLUSION: It’s dumb to say that the government bans any art it doesn’t support.

REASONING: Look how silly this sentence is: “The government censors your art, unless it gives you funding.”

ANALYSIS: This is a pretty good argument, assuming you agree that the rephrased sentence is absurd. If you agree, then you can’t believe that the government doesn’t allow art it doesn’t support.

The structure is: rephrasing an idea in a way that makes it clear that the idea is stupid.

The stimulus rephrased the idea using its contrapositive. The answer choices provide practice for making contrapositives.

To correctly take a contrapositive, you must switch the terms, and negate them.

___________

1. CORRECT. “Not arrested ➞ did not break the law” becomes “break the law ➞ arrested”. Everyone has broken some traffic law and not been arrested, so this is obviously true.
2. This is an incorrect negation of the original premise. It negates the terms, but doesn’t reverse them. “Not arrested ➞ did not break the law” becomes “Arrested ➞ did break the law”.
3. This is an incorrect reversal. The terms are reversed, but not negated. “Grant ➞ successful” becomes “successful ➞ grant”.
4. This is an incorrect negation. The terms are negated, but not reversed. “Grant ➞ successful” becomes “no grant ➞ not successful”.
5. This throws in some terms from the stimulus, randomly (government support, etc.).
    
   It’s not a good argument. The premise talks about a scientist being successful. The reworded sentence talks about a scientist being allowed to do work. They’re quite different concepts.

Recap: The question begins with “It is an absurd idea that whatever artistic endeavor”. It is a Parallel Reasoning question. Learn more about LSAT Parallel questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.