Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT5 S1 Q6 Explanation

Historian: Alexander the Great should

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

TopicsMethod

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Stimulus

Historian: Alexander the Great should not be judged by appeal to current notions of justice. Alexander, an ancient figure of heroic stature, should be judged by the standards of his own culture. That is, did he live up to his culture’s ideals of leadership? Did Alexander elevate his day, judged to be a just and wise ruler?

Student: But you cannot tell whether or not Alexander raised the contemporary standards of justice without invoking standards of his own culture.

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
6.

Which one of the following argumentative strategies does the student use in responding

Answer choices

  1. Trap7% picked this

    Arguing that applying the historian’s principle would require a knowledge of the past that is necessarily

  2. Trap8% picked this

    Attempting to undermine the historian’s principle by showing that some of its consequences are inconsistent

  3. Trap1% picked this

    Showing that the principle the historian invokes, when applied to Alexander, does not justify the assertion

  4. Trap1% picked this

    Questioning the historian’s motivation for determining whether a standard of behavior has been

  5. Correct83% picked this

    Claiming that one of the historian’s criteria for judging Alexander is inconsistent with the principle that

    Why this is right

    Answer E is correct.

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

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