LSAT 150 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q14

LR Question 14 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The arousal of anger is sometimes a legitimate artistic aim…

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: It is false to think that all legitimate art has a concern for beauty.

REASONING: Legitimate art AND anger ➞ calls for intervention in world

ANALYSIS: This argument utterly fails to connect anger with beauty. All we know is that anger arousing art calls for intervention. On sufficient assumption questions, you should consider what you’re trying to prove, then place the evidence by that to spot the gap.

Here, we’re trying to prove that “some art is not concerned with beauty”. So, we could prove it like this:

Legitimate art AND anger ➞ calls for intervention in world Beauty

So, if we say anything that calls for intervention in the world is concerned with beauty, then we can say that some art is not beautiful (that which arouses anger).

On earlier tests I’ve written to “split the conclusion apart, fill in the evidence, spot the gap”. I think LSAC noticed the pattern and has been changing it. For example, this question has “some” statements. I simplified the structure a bit to draw it. The “split, spot gap” method may no longer work, but simply keeping in mind “what are we trying to conclude?” still seems to work.

___________

1. This is irrelevant. The stimulus was only talking about legitimate works of art.
2. This contradicts the conclusion! The author was saying that there are some legitimate works of art not concerned with beauty.
3. The stimulus didn’t talk about primary or secondary concerns. Instead, the author said that some works aren’t concerned with beauty. At all.
4. CORRECT. This matches. See the analysis above. We know that legitimate works which arouse anger must call for intervention. This answer tells us that those works therefore aren’t concerned with beauty.
5. This tells us nothing about beauty! We’re trying to conclude that some works aren’t concerned with beauty.

Recap: The question begins with “The arousal of anger is sometimes a legitimate artistic aim”. It is a Sufficient Assumption question. Learn more about LSAT Sufficient questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.