LSAT 136 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q14

LR Question 14 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: University president: Research institutions have an obligation…

QUESTION TYPE: Principle

PRINCIPLE: Shows promise ➞ Obligation to pursue research in a theoretical field

No Obligation ➞ Doesn’t show promise

ANALYSIS: I shortened the principle above. The full principle is that something must

‘show promise to yield insight into the causes of practical problems that affect people’s quality of life’

That’s a mouthful. It’s better to simplify such a statement, but keep in mind the full idea is a bit more complex than whatever you draw.

On this type of question, you need to do two things:

1. Figure out the sufficient and necessary condition, and the contrapositive.
2. Make sure the wording in the answer matches the concept in the stimulus. So, ‘yielding insight into non-practical problems’ wouldn’t lead to any obligation.

You can only prove a necessary condition. So you need to find an answer that has one of the sufficient conditions from the ‘PRINCIPLE’ section, and that uses that condition to justify the necessary condition.

___________

1. We don’t know when it’s correct to deny funding.
2. We have no idea if this is proper. It doesn’t yield insight into practical problems.
3. This is administrative trivia. It has nothing to do with research aimed at practical problems.
4. This sounds wrong. Economic behavior is relevant to the practical problems of people’s lives.
5. CORRECT. Disease is a practical problem. It sounds like the institute had an obligation to fund research in this theoretical field.