LSAT 9 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q23

LR Question 23 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: A poor farmer was fond of telling his children: “In this world …

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: All rich farmers are dishonest.

REASONING: You are either rich or poor, and you are either honest or dishonest. All poor farmers are honest.

ANALYSIS: The conclusion is drawn by negating that all poor farmers are honest. It basically says: if poor, honest, and then negates that to: if rich, dishonest.

But this logic only works if being poor is the only way to be honest. That’s the same thing as saying every honest farmer is poor. So every farmer who’s not poor (i.e. rich) must be dishonest.

___________

1. CORRECT. This allows for the inference: if a farmer is not poor, then they must not be honest.
2. The argument only talks about farmers, not about all people. This is too broad.
3. The argument only talks about poor farmers, not all poor people.
4. That’s silly. Why would every dishonest person be a farmer? Most people aren’t farmers. The stimulus just says that all rich farmers are dishonest.
5. Again, too broad and silly. The argument is only about poor farmers, not poor people in general.