Logical Reasoning

PT138 · S2 · Q5 Principle: A law whose purpose

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

Principle: A law whose purpose is to protect wild animal populations should not be enforced against those whose actions do not threaten wild animal populations.

Application (should = opinion)

Snake charmers who violate the law against capturing wild snakes should not be prosecuted.

Principle

If a law's purpose is to protect wild animal law should populations → not be and person X's actions enforced do not threaten wild against animal populations person X

Evaluate / Goal

Whenever we're using a Principle to support a conclusion, we want the right side of the principle to match the conclusion.

We could have alternatively written this rule as, .

But since the idea we're trying to prove is , we want to be clear on what facts we need to know about the law and about snake charmers in order to know this principle applies to them.

We need to know that the law's purpose is to protect wild animal populations. Did they establish that?

Yes, they said there is a law against capturing wild snakes "which was enacted to protect wild snake populations".

Did they establish that snake charmers' actions "do not threaten wild animal populations"?

No, they didn't. That's what we're missing.

Goal

Let's look for, .

5.

Which one of the following, if true, most justifies the above application of the principle?

  1. Correct

    Since there are relatively few

    Why this is right

    We were looking for "Snake charmers' actions do not threaten wild animal populations". This is telling us that snake charmers have only a minimal effect on wild populations. Is it fair to think that "if they have only a minimal effect on wild populations" that "they don't threaten wild populations"? Sure, that's a reasonable connection. The language of the answer doesn't have to be perfect to win; it just has to be better than the other options.

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

    90% picked this

  2. Many attempts to prosecute snake

    Unrelated to Goal

    In order to apply this rule to snake charmers we need to know whether the rule applies to them, so we need to know whether "Snake charmers' actions do / don't threaten wild animal populations". Since this answer doesn't speak to that at all, it's useless to us.

    2% picked this

  3. Very few, if any, snake

    Unrelated to Goal

    In order to apply the principle to snake charmers we need to know whether the rule applies to them, so we need to know whether "Snake charmers are a category of people whose actions do not threaten wild animal populations". Since this answer doesn't speak to that at all, it's useless to us.

    1% picked this

  4. Snake populations are much less

    Too Weak

    In order to apply the principle to snake charmers we need to know whether the rule applies to them, so we need to know whether "Snake charmers are a category of people whose actions do not threaten wild animal populations". This answer makes it sound like snake populations are less threatened than are other populations, which somewhat goes in the direction we want, but that doesn't tell us whether or not snake populations are threatened. Bill Gates is less rich than Jeff Bezos, but Bill is still rich. (A) vs. (D) comes down to, "Which one better convinces us that the actions of snake charmers don't threaten wild snake populations"?

    5% picked this

  5. Snake charmers capture wild snakes

    Unrelated to Goal

    In order to apply the principle to snake charmers we need to know whether the rule applies to them, so we need to know whether "Snake charmers are a category of people whose actions do not threaten wild animal populations". Since this answer doesn't speak to that at all, it's useless to us.

    1% 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