LSAT 8 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q14

LR Question 14 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The dean of computing must be respected by the academic…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: The dean of computing must be a professor from this university’s computer science department.

REASONING: The dean must have a doctoral degree (so that the staff will respect them.) The dean must really know about computers (so that they can competently oversee the use of computers.) Lastly the Dean must be from the university’s staff.

ANALYSIS: We can weaken the argument by showing that someone outside of the computer science department meets all of the requirements. Or we could also weaken it by showing that no computer scientist meets the requirements.

___________

1. CORRECT. These people from the staff could be good candidates. The stimulus did not say that all candidates had to be professors. It only mentioned that the Dean would need the respect of the professors. Professors might respect staff members.
2. They won’t be good candidates because they don’t have doctoral degrees.
3. They will not be hired because they are not members of the university’s staff.
4. This doesn’t matter. We only know that academics don’t respect deans who don’t have doctoral degrees.
5. That’s alright, as long as there are some other academics in that department who are respected. We just need one viable candidate.

Recap: The question begins with “The dean of computing must be respected by the academic”. It is a Weaken question. Learn more about LSAT Weaken questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.