Logical Reasoning

PT122 · S1 · Q19 Film critic: There has been

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

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

Film critic: There has been a recent spate of so- called “documentary” films purporting to give the “true story” of one historical event or another.

Commentary

There have been a bunch of "documentaries" recently that are more like conspiracy theories. The filmmakers claim that freedom of speech entitles them to express their views, which is true. But that doesn't mean anyone needs to pay attention to the absurd views in the film.

Evaluate

The question stem describes this stimulus as commentary, which certainly could take the form of an argument but it doesn't need to, and it doesn't seem like this paragraph is an argument.

If anything, we could say the critic concludes that . What's the support? They are mostly inaccurate and filled with wild speculations.

So we could predict a Principle like,

if a supposed documentary no one need film is likely to be → to pay attention inaccurate & speculative to the film

But this doesn't seem to have the structural ingredients of an argument, so it's difficult to know what we should be doing or thinking.

Goal

Since we want a Principle that conforms to the author's thinking, we can just read these answer and think,

We should watch out for out of scope or extreme language.

19.

To which one of the following principles does the film critic's commentary most closely conform?

  1. Although filmmakers are entitled to

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: justified Bad Conclusion Match The first half of this matches the conversation, but saying that filmmakers "are not justified in expressing absurd views" is equivalent to saying, "they should not express absurd views". The author never went that far and said that the filmmakers shouldn't have made their films. She merely said that none of us audience members need bother to watch these films.

    4% picked this

  2. Everyone ought to ignore films

    Too Strong: everyone should ignore

    The actual conclusion is "everyone is free of any obligation to pay attention to these films". This answer is saying, "everyone is obliged to ignore these films". It's one thing to say, "You don't need to pay attention to X if you don't want to" and a much stronger thing to say, "You should ignore X". This answer could be correct if we were doing a Strengthen + Principle questions: Which principle, if valid, most justifies the argument?

    3% picked this

  3. Freedom of speech sometimes makes

    Too Strong: necessary

    It sounds like the author is saying that freedom of speech makes the expression of absurd views allowable. But she never suggests that it's necessary.

    1% picked this

  4. Freedom of speech does not

    Contradicted

    These films seem to often present inaccurate speculations as truth, and the author says "the claim that freedom of speech entitles the filmmakers to express these views is true". So the author thinks that freedom of speech does entitle filmmakers to do this.

    11% picked this

  5. Correct

    Views that people are entitled

    Why this is right

    This is lovably weak language. Saying "something that is X need not be Y" is just saying "it's possible to be X and not-Y". This matches all the language in the final sentence. The author affirms that freedom of speech entitles the fillmmakers to express the absurd views in these films. She also says that "that doesn't mean that anyone is obliged to pay attention to these views". So she apparently believes that you can have a view that you're entitled to express, but it can also be a view that no one is obliged to pay attention to.

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

    82% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free