December 2015 LSAT
Section 2
Question 15
Political leader: In this political dispute, our side will benefit from showing a desire to compromise with the oppos...
Replies
Aidyn-Carlson on June 25, 2019
Can someone explain why the answer is cLauren-Au on September 4, 2019
@JayDee8732 @Aidyn-Carlson Hi there! So I’m not sure if I’m 100% right in this explanation but the reason I choose answer (C) is because it is the super premise that allows the conclusion to be properly draw.So I took the conclusion to be that “our side will benefit from showing a desire to compromise with the oppositionâ€
They then give two premises for this:
(1) “if the opposition responds positively, then a compromise will be reached.â€
(2) “if they do not, then they will be held responsible for the failure to reach a compromise and our side will benefitâ€
If you notice the second premise they give follows logically to their conclusion (that their side will benefit from showing a desire to compromise) IF the opposition does not want to reach a compromise. HOWEVER, if you look closely at the first premise it ends by just stating that “a compromise will be reached†BUT it states nothing about if “our side will benefit form showing a desire to compromiseâ€. THEREFORE, this is the gap we are looking for. We are looking for something in the answer choice that states that if both sides compromise than “our side†or the political leader’s side will benefit from showing a desire to compromise.
This is exactly what answer choice (C) does in stating that “The political leader’s side will benefit if a compromise is reachedâ€
If you look carefully you’ll notice that this answer choice fills the gap and allows the first premise to lead logically to the statement’s conclusion.
Hope that helps explain it a bit! Good luck with the rest of your studying! :)