Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT112 S4 Q1 Explanation

A government ought to protect and

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

TopicsSufficient Assumption

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Stimulus

A government ought to protect and encourage free speech, because free speech is an activity that is conducive to a healthy nation and thus interest of its people.

What this question is testing

Sufficient Assumption

Your task

Find the assumption that, if added, guarantees the conclusion follows.

Common trap

Answers that only partly bridge the gap, leaving the conclusion unproven.

Winning move

Identify the new term in the conclusion and pick the choice that links it to the evidence.

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

The question
1.

The main conclusion above follows logically if which one of the following

Answer choices

  1. Correct87% picked this

    An activity that is in the best interest of the people ought to be protected and encouraged

    Why this is right

    We know that free speech is in the best interest of the people. According to this answer, that means that free speech ought to be protected and encouraged by a nation's government. So we did it! We proved the conclusion that a government ought to protect and encourage free speech.

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

  2. No Impact1% picked this

    Basic, inalienable rights of the people ought to be protected and

    Have we been told that free speech is a basic, inalienable right? Nope. So this rule doesn't click onto our evidence to let us derive anything. All we know about free speech is - conducive to healthy nation - best interests of people

  3. No Impact1% picked this

    An activity that helps a government to govern ought to be protected and

    Have we been told that free speech helps a government to govern? Nope. So this rule doesn't click onto our evidence to let us derive anything. All we know about free speech is - conducive to healthy nation - best interests of people

  4. No Impact7% picked this

    A government ought to protect and encourage an activity that is conducive to the interests

    Have we been told that free speech is a conducive to the interests of the government? Hmm, not quite. We were told that free speech is conducive to a healthy nation in the best interests of its people This answer is just offering a Word Salad of those two (conducive to interests). And there's potentially a big difference between what's in the best interests of the people, and what's in the best interests of the government.

  5. No Impact3% picked this

    Universal human rights that are in the best interest of the people ought to be protected and encouraged

    Have we been told that free speech is a universal human right? Nope. So this rule doesn't click onto our evidence to let us derive anything. All we know about free speech is - conducive to healthy nation - best interests of people

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