LSAT 116 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q25

LR Question 25 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Wealth is not a good thing, for good things cause no harm…

QUESTION TYPE: Parallel Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Wealth is not a good thing.

REASONING: Good thing never causes harm. Wealth sometimes causes harm. Therefore, wealth is not a good thing.

ANALYSIS: This is good reasoning. It uses the contrapositive of the first statement and the second statement in order to draw a conclusion.

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1. CORRECT. This does it. A ➞ LG. CC ➞ LG. A ➞ LG ➞ CC. You combine the two by taking the contrapositive of the second statement.
2. This is a bad argument. If you are contented, then you smile a lot and don’t cry. The reverse isn’t necessarily true.
3. This is a decent argument. It stands to reason that if something is unbearable, then it is not a good thing. But it does not follow the explicit contrapositive structure of the stimulus, and also relies on an unstated assumption.
4. This is a bad argument, as it only claims that most dachshunds hunt poorly, leaving room for the possibility that some hunt well.
5. This argument is okay, but the conclusion (“it is surprising”) is not strong enough to match the definite conclusion in the stimulus.

Recap: The question begins with “Wealth is not a good thing, for good things cause no harm”. It is a Parallel Reasoning question. Learn how to master LSAT Parallel questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.