#25 - The argument Hector makes in responding to Monica depe

[Yining Bei]

Could someone please explain to me why E is correct and why A is incorrect?

Thanks so much!

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi Yining Bei,

Generally, it will help us give you a better and more targeted answer if you take the time to tell us how you approached the question, why you chose the answer you did, why you ruled out the correct answer, etc. Plus, doing that will also help you think through the question carefully, and in the long term will help you get better at catching your own mistakes!

In the meantime, though, I'm happy to walk you through E and A. The stimulus tells us that if it was commissioned for the public, it should benefit the public, and we will only know if the public feels it was benefitted by considering popular opinion. However, we have NO idea what the relationship might be between the public actually being benefitted and what the public thinks about whether it was benefitted. The assumption is that those two things are the same. That's my pre-phrase, so I'm going to look for an answer choice that matches that. I find it in E, which connects those two ideas.

A, on the other hand, doesn't address the gap in the stimulus; it does give us a reason why the sculpture should be removed, but it doesn't relate back to the argument being made in any way (it is failing to connect public opinion and benefit to the public). Accordingly, it is NOT an assumption of the argument, because it isn't something on which the argument relies.

[Yining Bei]

Thank you so much Emily! I think the reason I didn't get this right was because I totally overlooked the fact that there is a logical gap in the stimulus. I picked A mostly because I thought it would serve as a defender. However, what the argument here really depended on was E.

[lsatstudying11]

Hi!

Could another assumption here be related to the idea that it is possible for a scorned work of art to not be beneficial to the public? My initial pre-phrase was something like scorning the art implies that the public would not benefit. Would this be another possibility since I don't think this connection was ever made explicit in the stimulus? Thanks!

[evelineliu]

Hi lsatstudying11,

Hector's conclusion is that if the public opposes the sculpture, it should be removed. His evidence comes from the relationship between public opinion and public benefit. He says that public artwork ought to benefit the public and then says that checking the public pulse s the only way to determine what the public feels is to its benefit. These two things do not need to be identical. There could be a big difference between "public benefit" and what the public believes to be beneficial. Hector is assuming there is no difference. So he is assuming (E). That's what you should be thinking about in your prephrase!

Hope that helps!
Eveline