Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT16 S2 Q23 Explanation

S: People who are old enough

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

TopicsMethod

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Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Stimulus

S: People who are old enough to fight for their country are old enough to vote for the people who make decisions about war and peace. This government clearly regards 17 year olds as should acknowledge their right to vote.

T: Your argument is a good one only to the extent that fighting and voting are the same kind of activity. Fighting well requires strength, muscular coordination, and in a modern army instant and automatic response to orders. Performed responsibly, voting, unlike fighting, and knowledge of both history and human nature.

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
23.

T responds to S’s argument

Answer choices

  1. Contradicted: supported5% picked this

    citing evidence overlooked by S that would have supported

    T is undermining S's logic, so T's evidence would undermine S's conclusion.

  2. Bad Description: understanding of rights7% picked this

    calling into question S’s understanding of the concept

    T calls into question the legitimacy of an analogy between fighting and voting that S is making, but he never calls into question her understanding of the concept of rights.

  3. Bad Description: rights vs. obligations10% picked this

    showing that S has ignored the distinction between having a right to do something and having an obligation

    At no point is T is saying, "you're ignoring the distinction between rights and obligations". T is saying, "you're ignoring the distinction between what's needed to fight and what's needed to vote responsibly".

  4. Correct58% picked this

    challenging the truth of a claim on which S’s conclusion

    Why this is right

    S claimed that "people old enough to fight are old enough to vote", and T calls this claim into question by saying, "that's only true if fighting and voting are the same, which they're not". This is a rare case in which the 2nd person is undermining the 1st person by attacking the legitimacy of one of their explicit premises.

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

  5. Too Strong: arguing for opposite conclusion20% picked this

    arguing for a conclusion opposite to the one drawn

    This was the trap answer we warned ourselves about. T only suggests that S's argument might not be good because it might rely on a faulty assumption. He never says that 17 year olds shouldn't have the right to vote. He might believe that they should have that right, but for different reasons than that cited by S. T is only saying, "This is an unsuccessful argument", not "your conclusion is false". Saying that "you failed to prove X" is not the same as "X is false". When LSAT authors act like those are the same, we call it the famous Unproven vs. Proven False flaw.

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