Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT8 S4 Q14 Explanation

The dean of computing must be

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

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Stimulus

The dean of computing must be respected by the academic staff and be competent to oversee the use of computers on campus. The only deans whom academics respect are those who hold doctoral degrees, and only someone who really knows about computers can competently oversee the use of computers on campus. Furthermore, dean of computing must be a professor from this university’s computer science department.

What this question is testing

Weaken

Your task

Find the choice that makes the argument's conclusion less likely to be true.

Common trap

Answers that look negative but attack a claim the argument never relied on.

Winning move

Find the assumption the argument depends on, then pick the choice that undermines it.

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

The question
14.

Which one of the following statements, if true, would weaken

Answer choices

  1. Correct77% picked this

    There are members of this university’s staff who hold doctoral degrees and who are not professors but who

    Why this is right

    This answer weakens the argument by suggesting an alternate pool of candidates within the university who meet the required criteria: having a doctoral degree, knowing about computers, and being part of the university's staff. If such individuals exist outside the computer science department, then we don't HAVE to choose someone from the computer science dept.

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

  2. No Impact5% picked this

    There are members of this university’s philosophy department who do not hold doctoral degrees but who

    Since these people lack doctoral degrees, they are not eligible for the position, so they don't give us a way to say, "You don't have to choose from the computer science staff. You have other options!"

  3. No Impact6% picked this

    Computer science professors who hold doctoral degrees but who are not members of this university’s staff have applied for the

    This does not weaken the argument because the board requires the dean to be selected from this university's staff. The applicants from outside do not meet this essential criterion.

  4. No Impact2% picked this

    Several members of the board of trustees of this university do not

    This does not pertain to the qualifications of the dean of computing and does not address whether other, non-computer science, candidates within the university could meet the necessary criteria.

  5. No Impact10% picked this

    Some members of the computer science department at this university are not respected by academics

    This talks about people in computer science who wouldn't qualify for the new position, because they're not respected. But we need to hear about people outside the computer science dept who do qualify.

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