LSAT 104 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q18

LR Question 18 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Book publishers have traditionally published a few…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: Publishers care more about money and less about intrinsic value than they used to.

REASONING: Publishers used to publish some valuable books that were unlikely to make a profit. They do this less often now.

ANALYSIS: There could be other reasons why publishers publish fewer intrinsically valuable books.

Maybe authors are writing fewer such books, for example. Or maybe authors are self-publishing those books.

___________

1. The argument agrees that book publishers have always liked money. The argument is that they like money even more now.
2. CORRECT. If this is true, then maybe there are fewer intrinsically valuable books for publishers to support.
3. This could explain why publishers used to print many unprofitable but valuable books. It doesn’t explain why they stopped printing them.
4. That’s nice. But this doesn’t tell us anything about the authors who wrote intrinsically valuable books that didn’t seem profitable.
5. This could explain why publishers put out fewer unprofitable books. But it doesn’t disprove the idea that publishers are now more interested in making money.

Recap: The question begins with “Book publishers have traditionally published a few”. It is a Weaken question. Learn more about LSAT Weaken questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.