October 2008 LSAT Section 1 Question 19

Even those who believe that the art of each age and culture has its own standards of beauty must admit that some pain...

shafieiava on January 13, 2020

Answer choice C

Can someone please explain why C is the correct answer here? Furthermore, I had trouble identifying the premise and conclusion of this argument. Any help in general with argument structure questions would also be of great help. Thank you!

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Ravi on January 15, 2020

@shafieiava,

Let's take a look at the argument and (C).

The conclusion of the argument is right in the middle of the stimulus,
saying, "But this superiority must be measured in light of the
artist's purposes." The premise of the argument comes immediately
after the conclusion, saying, "since the high merits, for example, of
Jose Rey Toledo's work and his extraordinary artistic skills are not
in doubt, despite the fact that his paintings do not literally
resemble what they represent." We know this is the premise because it
starts with "since" and is supporting the conclusion of the argument.
The rest of the stimulus, including the claim in question, is part of
the background information of the prompt. The author's main conclusion
qualifies the claim in question, and the keyword that tells us that
the author is modifying the claim in the background information is
from the keyword "but," which is a word that often introduces
conclusions as well as qualifies whatever was written before it.

(C) says, "It is a claim that, according to the argument, is to be
understood in a manner specified by the conclusion."

(C) does a great job in describing what the claim in question does.
"Understood in a manner specified by the conclusion" is just a fancy
way of telling us that the author is attempting to qualify this claim.
The background claim states that some painters are simply superior to
others, and the author qualifies this by stating that one has to take
into account the purpose of the artist. Thus, (C) is the correct
answer choice.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!

shafieiava on January 17, 2020

Yes this makes a lot more since! Can you explain a bit about how you would eliminate E as an answer choice? Thank you.

Alyona1983 on March 7, 2020

I think E doesn't work because it does not justify anything, but only provides information.

MarandaEsquire on September 30, 2020

Can someone explain why B is not correct? I did process of elimination and narrowed down to B and C and ended up choosing C! I think I am just confused on what B actually means.