LSAT 5 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q11

LR Question 11 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Professor Smith published a paper arguing that a chemical…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: The scientific community felt threatened by professor Smith’s work and conspired to discredit it.

REASONING: The scientific community argued that Professor Smith’s work was wrong.

ANALYSIS: This is a bad argument. It’s possible the scientists conspired against Professor Smith. Or maybe Professor Smith was simply wrong. We can’t be sure based on the information given.

Remember that the conclusion is about why the scientists attacked Professor Smith. The four wrong answer choices talk about other people instead of focusing on the motives of the scientists.

___________

1. The conclusion is about the actions of the scientists, not Professor Smith.
2. Same as A.
3. CORRECT. Indeed. Science is a process of criticism and testing of the work of others. Even if Professor Smith is correct it’s quite possible that all of the attacks were reasonable efforts at establishing the truth.
4. It wouldn’t even matter if the author was Professor Smith himself. We have to assess the quality of a person’s argument. It doesn’t matter who they are.
5. Same as A. We care about the actions of the scientists, not what the public thought.

Recap: The question begins with “Professor Smith published a paper arguing that a chemical”. It is a Flawed Reasoning question. Learn how to master LSAT Flaw questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.