Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT13 S2 Q10 Explanation

Every political philosopher of the

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

TopicsMust be True

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Stimulus

Every political philosopher of the early twentieth century who was either a socialist or a communist was influenced by Rosa Luxemburg. No one who Luxemburg advocated a totalitarian state.

What this question is testing

Must be True

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

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

The question
10.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following must on the basis of them

Answer choices

  1. Correct66% picked this

    No early-twentieth-century socialist political philosopher advocated a

    Why this is right

    This answer is saying, 20th century PP ? didn't advocate and socialist totalitarian state That's something we can derive from our chain. It's connecting the first idea to the third. 20th cent PP ? influenced ? didn't advocate and soc/comm by R.L. totalitarian state We know that every political philosopher of the 20th century who was socialist was influenced by Rosa, and we know that no one influenced by Rosa advocated a totalitarian state.

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

  2. Unknown Trigger10% picked this

    Every early-twentieth-century political philosopher who did not advocate a totalitarian state was influenced

    This answer puts some language from the 1st and 3rd idea into a trigger, creating a relationship we can't justify. We knew this: 20th cent PP ? influenced ? didn't advocate and soc/comm by R.L. totalitarian state This answer is saying, 20th cent PP and didn't advocate ? influenced totalitarian state by R.L. We don't know whether all 20th century political philosophers who didn't advocate totalitarian states was influenced by Rosa. We only know that 20th century political philosophers who were socialist or communist were influenced by Rosa. But there might have been 20th century political philosophers who were capitalist that didn't advocate a totalitarian state, and maybe they weren't influenced by Rosa.

  3. Illegal Reversal Too Strong: the only2% picked this

    Rosa Luxemburg was the only person to influence every early-twentieth-century political philosopher who was either

    This is an illegal reversal of the first sentence. We were told that all early 20th PP's who were socialist or communist were influenced by Rosa. But that doesn't mean they were only influenced by Rosa.

  4. Bad Outcome Match11% picked this

    Every early-twentieth-century political philosopher who was influenced by Rosa Luxemburg and was not a socialist

    This answer is saying, "Everyone from group X was a communist". The information didn't give us any means to prove that anyone was a communist. "Communist" was an idea in a trigger, not in an outcome. This answer is saying: 20th century PP; and influenced by Rosa ? communist and not socialist This is what we knew: 20th cent PP ? influenced ? didn't advocate and soc/comm by R.L. totalitarian state They're just doing a random Word Salad scramble of ingredients.

  5. Bad Outcome Match10% picked this

    Every early-twentieth-century political philosopher who did not advocate a totalitarian state was either

    This answer is saying, "Everyone from group X was a socialist or communist". The information didn't give us any means to prove that anyone was a socialist or communist. "Socialist or Communist" was an idea in a trigger, not in an outcome. This answer is saying: 20th century PP and didn't advocate ? socialist or communist totalitarian state This is what we knew: 20th cent PP ? influenced ? didn't advocate and soc/comm by R.L. totalitarian state They're just doing a random Word Salad scramble of ingredients.

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