October 2000 LSAT Section 4 Question 16

Numerous paintings and engravings representing warfare can be found in remains of all civilizations going back to and...

JoshG on August 1, 2020

Similar to Scientists a Few Questions Back

Hi There, I inquired about a similarly structured Strengthen with Necessary question about 20 or so questions ago, and I was similarly stuck between two answers, both C and E, which sounded good to me. If someone could please help me understand why C is preferable, I'd appreciate that. Thanks!

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shunhe on August 1, 2020

Hi @JoshG,

Thanks for the question! So let’s recap this argument real quick. We’re basically told that paintings/engravings of warfare can be found way back when, back when agriculture was first developed. But no paintings/engravings were found before that period. So, the argument concludes, warfare must’ve developed as a result of the transition to an agricultural society.

Now we’re asked to find an assumption required by the argument. And how does the argument work? It goes from saying that there were no paintings/engravings of war before time X, to concluding that warfare started at time X. So what’s the argument assuming here? Well clearly, some kind of connection between the paintings/engravings and the warfare actually happening is being assumed.

Now take a look at (C), which tells us that the argument assumes that there wasn’t warfare before periods/engravings of warfare were first created. And that seems to be a good paraphrase of what we were saying! We can test it with the negation test: let’s say it’s true that there was warfare before paintings/engravings of warfare were first created. Then there could’ve been warfare before the Neolithic era, and if that’s true, warfare couldn’t have first developed as a result of transitioning to an agricultural society, since the Neolithic period was when we developed agriculture! So negating (C) makes the argument fall apart, which makes it the necessary assumption.

(E) tells us that paintings/engravings of agricultural life began to be made at the same time as paintings of warfare. But why do we care about paintings/engravings of agriculture, is this something the argument has to assume? Let’s say it’s false, and paintings/engravings of agricultural life came later. Well, it could still be true that warfare developed as a result of transitioning to an agricultural society, so the argument still stands, and (E) isn’t the necessary assumption.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

JoshG on August 2, 2020

Great explanation, thanks!

shunhe on August 4, 2020

Glad you found it helpful!