Q18 - Historian: In rebuttal of my claim

[giladedelman]

Careful! We know Abella studied under West, and this is indeed offered as evidence that West influenced Stuart. But where does it indicate anything about Abella's and Stuart's discussions????

It doesn't!

So we have no way to say that (A) is supported. Yes, it's possible, but it's far from a valid inference. For all we know, Abella and Stuart never talked about West, but Stuart was intrigued that his friend studied with West and decided to learn all about his work.

(D) is correct because the historian indicates that West influenced Stuart by pointing out that Stuart was the only one to use West's terminology. So it is probably the case that Stuart was at least a little bit influenced by West.

(B) is incorrect because the information actually suggests the opposite, if anything.

(C) is too strong. His contemporaries didn't use West's terminology, but they still may have been influenced by him in other ways.

(E) is way out of scope. We have no idea whether it's commonplace now.

Does that clear this one up for you?


#officialexplanation

[vik]

If Stuart's friend Abella studied under West, than Ans A would be correct too.

[asafezrati]

The author's argument did not convince me that W influenced S. Therefore, if alternative options (influence by a third source or S influencing W) are open, then answer choice D seems like a bad choice.

Help?

[dhlim3]

Isn't answer choice D just restating the conclusion of the argument?

[ohthatpatrick]

Sure, you could think about (D) that way (although it sounds like you're raising that issue as an objection to choice (D), rather than as proof that (D) is the best answer).

First off, ID the question type.

Inference - most strongly supported (some people call this "soft - must be true". We're looking for the most provable, most supportable answer.

Be careful about thinking there WAS a conclusion to the paragraph. The paragraph is not described as an "argument" or "reasoning". LSAT will always use those terms when we're reading a Premise/Conclusion structure.

Instead, for Inference and several other types, they're describing the paragraph as "statements" (other interchangeable forms would be "information, evidence, considerations, passage")

The purpose of the Historian's statements is certainly to imply the conclusion expressed by (D).

And in the first line, the Historian alludes to the idea that in the past, he/she has claimed that West influenced Stuart.

So ... yes ... (D) is basically the author holding steady to her conclusion. And she supported that idea with all the ideas that follow the word "But".

[abegin93]

is there another reason we can eliminate E? Because the question stem does say "stuarts work often uses west's terminology which, *though commonplace now*, none of stuart's contemporaries used." I get why D is better but I am having trouble eliminating E based on this explanation.

Thanks!

Careful! We know Abella studied under West, and this is indeed offered as evidence that West influenced Stuart. But where does it indicate anything about Abella's and Stuart's discussions????

It doesn't!

So we have no way to say that (A) is supported. Yes, it's possible, but it's far from a valid inference. For all we know, Abella and Stuart never talked about West, but Stuart was intrigued that his friend studied with West and decided to learn all about his work.

(D) is correct because the historian indicates that West influenced Stuart by pointing out that Stuart was the only one to use West's terminology. So it is probably the case that Stuart was at least a little bit influenced by West.

(B) is incorrect because the information actually suggests the opposite, if anything.

(C) is too strong. His contemporaries didn't use West's terminology, but they still may have been influenced by him in other ways.

(E) is way out of scope. We have no idea whether it's commonplace now.

Does that clear this one up for you?

[JoyS894]

I understand why D is correct, but could someone clarify why we can eliminate A?

[ZarkaS555]

I understand why D is correct, but could someone clarify why we can eliminate A?

A is incorrect because there is no way for us to support the claim that it was Stuart's discussions with Abella that led him to be influenced by West. What if Stuart was secretly reading Abella's notes? What if Abella wrote him long emails and never actually had a real conversation with Stuart? There is a range of possibilities here that the stimulus does not support. The stimulus provides support for the fact that Stuart and Abella are "friends," whether they are friends who have discussions or occasionally send each other Christmas cards, we don't know.

[MichaelC134]

Is another reason we can eliminate (A) because if (A) is true, then (D) has to be true, but not the other way around?

So, if West influenced Stuart through Alba then by definition Stuart's work was not entirely free from West's influence? Therefore, A cannot be correct.

Thanks.

[ohthatpatrick]

Yes! That type of thinking rarely comes into play, but when it DOES occur (one answer implies the other), the implied answer is the correct one, because either way it would be right.

[AlexY297]

Hi Patrick, I like your takeaway/pattern advice on some of your LSAT explanations. Can you do more of them? I find them very insightful and useful in tackling LSAT questions. Thank you.

[ohthatpatrick]

Thanks, Alex.

Yeah, a year or so ago, they had us go through all the LR sections from like pt60 - present?

We were writing "Official explanations" and one of the fields we wanted was "Takeaways/Pattern".

So you'll always see those on any modern LR explanation, and if you're craving one on an older problem, feel free to ask.