LSAT 138 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q22

LR Question 22 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: One of the most useful social conventions is money…

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: It is likely that more than one society independently invented money.

REASONING: Money is:

1. As universal as language. (i.e. in every society)
2. Invented by humans.

ANALYSIS: This is a sufficient assumption question. That means you are trying to prove the conclusion true.

To do this, just look for a statement that takes the evidence and connects it to the conclusion:

Universal AND invented ➞ Likely invented in more than one place

I made that without looking at the answers. It might not be exactly what the right answer says, but I expect it will be something along those lines.

Note that in the reasoning I wrote that “as universal as language” means “in every society”. From common sense, we know that every culture has language. So we know the stimulus means that every society also has money. This is crucial to finding the right answer.

If no informed person would disagree with an assumption (e.g. “every society has language”), then the LSAT expects you to make that assumption.

___________

1. CORRECT. Accepting this answer requires applying a bit of common sense knowledge. Do you live in a society with money? Yes. So that means at least some society in the past invented money and passed it down to our society.
    
   Next: Do you live in a society so geographically isolated that it hasn’t been influenced by any other? No! In fact, if you’re American, you’re being influenced by another society right now: I’m Canadian.
    
   But, this answer says that there is some other society out there, so isolated that it hasn’t been influenced. Ok great, who cares?
    
   Well, the stimulus said that money was universal. That means it exists in every society. Including this isolated society that has not been influenced.
    
   So how did they get money? Well, they must have had to invent it themselves!
    
   So, this answer proves that money likely was invented in at least two places: the isolated society, and in whatever non-isolated society invented money and handed it down to us.
    
   Phew, longest explanation I ever had to write for a sufficient assumption answer. I actually think this answer is rock solid, it just requires a lot of words to explain all the steps.
2. Language was only useful as evidence to show how universal money was. But the passage makes a distinction: language is natural, money is artificial. So language doesn’t necessarily tell us much about money directly.
3. This just makes a general statement about what’s true of universal features of society. It tells us nothing about how often money was invented.
4. This tells us why money is widespread, but it doesn’t tell us where it was invented, or in how many places.
5. This doesn’t tell us about societies that invented money. (You can adopt money without inventing it, if you borrow it from another society).