#25 - Art critic: An arrangement of objects tends to be

[goingslow]

Hi there! Is the correlation in the stimulus ( impression of success CORRELATE WITH aesthetically pleasing) one way or two way?

Do we get to say something like, "Since X is not aesthetically pleasing, it probably doesn't give the impression that the artists succeeded at what they were attempting to do"?

[Paul Popa]

Hey goingslow,

Great question, and great username! That's a solid approach to reviewing LSAT questions

I would say that there is a proportional relationship here. Overall, according to the art critic, the more successful we believe the arranger was, the more pleasing we find their arrangement. As with most proportional relationships, either condition could trigger the other: as one goes up, the other goes down, and vice versa.

D says if the wood panels were more symmetrical, this would give us the impression of being closer to the arranger's original intent, and thus more aesthetically pleasing. This is a good match for the proportional relationship in the stimulus and is thus correct.

Let's also touch on B. Here, we get one side of the relationship in that the art installation is less aesthetically pleasing, but in regards to other installations. For this answer choice to be correct, it would need to state that the less-pleasing installation gives us a worse impression of the arranger's success than the others, but B doesn't do that. B infers the author's intention, but the stimulus instead discusses our perception of the author's intention; not quite the same thing. Hope this helps!