LSAT 142 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Vandenburg: This art museum is not adhering to its…

QUESTION TYPE: Principle

ARGUMENTS: Vandenburg says that the museum is failing in its purpose. The museum is supposed to treat contemporary art with as much consideration as it treats earlier periods. Yet the museum only has a small contemporary collection.

Simpson points out that the contemporary period is smaller because there’s little high quality contemporary art.

ANALYSIS: Both Vandenburg and Simpson make good points. Vandenburg is correct that the museum has a duty to give consideration to contemporary art.

But what does that mean? Is the museum supposed to collect a lot of contemporary art? Or is Simpson correct that proper consideration for modern art doesn’t require that many pieces?

Consideration can mean: thinking about. So you could consider modern art, and decide it’s largely not worth displaying. In that case, Simpson would be right.

___________

1. CORRECT. Simpson’s argument was that only a few modern works are high quality. This principle supports Simpson by showing that only high quality work should be collected.
2. Simpson didn’t say that modern art should be excluded because it violates the museum’s purpose, so this answer can’t support Simpson.
3. This sounds good, but it doesn’t actually support Simpson. As Vandenburg points out, the founders did intend the museum to collect contemporary art. This answer doesn’t contradict that: it only means there are some (other) periods that aren’t required.
4. This would be the correct answer, if it had said art museum. But this principle talks about ethnographic museums. This answer is a trap: Simpson only mentioned ethnographic museums as an example of what the museum is not. 
5. This weakens Simpson’s argument. Simpson said the curators were right!