December 2009 LSAT Section 1 Question 19

Essayist: One of the drawbacks of extreme personal and political freedom is that free choices are often made for the...

shafieiava on January 3, 2020

A versus D

Can someone explain the differences between answer choices A and D? Is it just the word inevitably? In that case wouldn't A be a better answer choice because it uses a stronger terminology to strengthen the argument?

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Victoria on January 3, 2020

Hi @shafieiava,

You are correct that the issue is with the word 'inevitably,' but the use of this word in (A) actually serves to make (D) the better answer choice.

In the passage, the essayist concludes that we should not support political systems that allow extreme freedom. Why? Because viewing the "destructive consequences of extreme freedom" may lead people to prefer totalitarian regimes.

In drawing this conclusion, the essayist has made an assumption that we should not support anything that has the chance of leading to a totalitarian regime.

In this way, answer choice A is too strong. If we should not support any political system that will inevitably lead to a totalitarian regime, then we overlook political systems that allow extreme freedom because they could (rather than will) lead to such a regime. Answer choice (A) therefore has no impact on the essayist's argument and is incorrect.

Answer choice (D) is correct because, if we accept this principle, then we must also accept the essayist's conclusion that we should not support political systems that allow for extreme freedom because of the chance that they may lead to totalitarian political regimes.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.