December 2014 LSAT Section 1 Question 10

Principle: People should buy an expensive antique only if they can be confident of its authenticity and they find the...

Anna on November 7, 2018

what is this question asking?

I was confused on what the question stem exactly wanted me to do here. It says to justify the application of the principle, so would that mean finding the answer choice that goes strictly with the principle or finding the answer choice that applies the principle and the application of Matilde not buying the vase? Thank you for any guidance!!

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Mehran on November 10, 2018

Hi @Anna, thanks for your post. A question that asks you to identify the answer choice that "most helps to justify the application of the principle" set forth in the stimulus is a strengthen question type. You are looking for an answer choice that strengthens the stimulus.

Let's look at this stimulus to see how this plays out here. First, we are given a principle (a general rule): People should buy an expensive antique (BEA) only if they can be confident of its authenticity (CA) and they find the piece desirable for its intrinsic qualities and not just for its value as an investment (DIQ).

The diagram is: BEA ==> CA and DIQ

The contrapositive is: not CA or not DIQ ==> not BEA.

We are then given an application of this principle: Matilde should not buy the expensive antique vase offered for sale on the Internet.

Why not? We need to somehow justify (support) this application.

Answer choice (E) does the job. It provides us with additional information, which helps us to apply the principle in the manner suggested in the stimulus. Answer choice (E) tells us that the vase "cannot be examined closely or authenticated over the Internet." This means "not CA" (not confident of authenticity). Via the contrapositive of the given principle, not CA is sufficient for not BEA (if you cannot be confident of the authenticity, you should not buy an expensive antique). Thus, (E) would strengthen the application of the principle to Matilde.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Meredith on September 16, 2020

what specifically allows you to eliminate the other answer choices?