June 2010 LSAT Section 3 Question 15

Carla: Professors at public universities should receive paid leaves of absence to allow them to engage in research. ...

shafieiava on December 24, 2019

Answer choice B

Can someone explain why answer choice B is incorrect? It seems that the the reply from Speaker 2 is in fact taking for granted that the professors only function is teaching (e.g. because research provides other benefits to professors, including helping them become better teachers).

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shunhe on January 2, 2020

Hi @shafieiava,

Thanks for the question. Let's walk through the argument. Carla is saying that professors should get paid leaves of absences so they can research; David objects because he thinks we shouldn't devote resources to professors taking time off from teaching. We're looking for a flaw in David's response. Does David assume that the only function of a university professor is teaching? Not necessarily. He just says that professors shouldn't be paid when they take time off from teaching, which he seems to think is a more important function. He doesn't, however, need to claim that it's the ONLY function a professor can have, just that it's the only function for which they should be paid. This is why (B) is incorrect. Hope this helps!