LSAT 119 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Psychologist: There are theories that posit completely different…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Freudian theories should be abandoned in favor of other theories.

REASONING: The other theories are more successful at predicting human behavior.

ANALYSIS: This seems like a straightforward argument, but we’ve only been shown one aspect of the theories: how well they predict human behavior.

There may be other reasons to prefer a theory. Since we only have evidence about prediction, a necessary assumption is that we ought to prefer theories with better predictive power.

___________

1. “The causes of human behavior” is something distinct from “predicting human behavior.” So even if this assumption is false the argument isn’t hurt.
2. CORRECT. Yes, the opposite “is not scientifically preferable” wrecks the argument’s only evidence.
3. Not necessary. It could have had great success, as long as the other theories had even more success.
4. Not necessary. It doesn’t matter how you measure predictive success, as long as the other theories could predict better.
5. Practicality actually wasn’t important to the argument: predictive power was the only evidence given.

Recap: The question begins with “Psychologist: There are theories that posit completely different”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn how to master LSAT Necessary questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.