LSAT 150 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q25

LR Question 25 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Essayist writing in 2012: At its onset, a new medium is limited…

QUESTION TYPE: Principle – Justify

CONCLUSION: It is too early to understand the e-book as a medium.

REASONING: E-books have not taken their ultimate form – it is still carrying content from the old medium (in this case, print books).

ANALYSIS: The reasoning has a little gap. We are told that e-books are still limited to carrying content from print books, and so they have not yet taken their ultimate form. But the author jumps to the idea that we cannot fully understand it.

The correct principle will link understanding a medium to when it’s reached its ultimate form.

___________

1. This doesn’t justify the reasoning. This would work if the author said we needed to fully understand books before we can understand e-books. But that’s not the argument.
2. This is completely irrelevant to the argument, which focuses on understanding a medium.
3. This doesn’t justify the reasoning. This principle establishes what an “ultimate form” is, but doesn’t tell us when we can fully understand a medium.
4. CORRECT. This principle tells us that we cannot understand a medium until we’ve seen it evolve – that is, until it reaches its ultimate form.
5. This principle doesn’t justify the reasoning. We don’t need to know when a medium can replace another – we’ve already been told that e-books have replaced books.

Recap: The question begins with “Essayist writing in 2012: At its onset, a new medium is limited”. It is a Principle Justify question. Learn how to master LSAT Principle Justify questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.