Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT108 S3 Q25 Explanation

Anthropologist: After mapping the complete

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsMethod

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Stimulus

Anthropologist: After mapping the complete dominance hierarchy for a troupe of vervet monkeys by examining their pairwise interaction, we successfully predicted more complex forms of their group behavior by assuming that each monkey had knowledge of the complete hierarchy. Since our prediction was used to reach it was in fact true.

Primatologist: Although I agree that your assumption helped you make those predictions, your conclusion does not follow. You might as well argue that since we can predict the output of some bank cash machines by assuming that these machines these cash machines must really have desires.

What this question is testing

Method

Your task

Describe how the argument proceeds — the technique it uses to reach its conclusion.

Common trap

Answers that describe a method the argument doesn't actually use.

Winning move

Track the role each statement plays, then match that to the choice describing the same moves.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
25.

The primatologist uses which one of the following argumentative techniques in countering

Answer choices

  1. Trap1% picked this

    citing various facts that could not obtain if the anthropologist's conclusion

  2. Trap2% picked this

    offering another argument that has as its premise the denial of the thesis that

  3. Correct92% picked this

    applying one of the anthropologist's reasoning steps in another argument in an attempt to show that it leads

    Why this is right

    Answer C is correct.

    Skill tested: Method · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. Trap4% picked this

    attacking the anthropologist's expertise by suggesting the anthropologist is ignorant of the analogy that can be drawn

  5. Trap1% picked this

    suggesting that the anthropologist's argument relies on a misinterpretation of a

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