Q3

[skapur777]

Really confused by how A is correct.

The claim is that the binary opposition technique is more related to african oral storytelling than the marxist components of Ousmane's ideology...am I correct in this?

If so, I'm confused at how A strengthens theclaim. Several African novelists (not filmmakers) may use binary oppositions and not read Marxist theory but that doesn't mean binary oppositions aren't also closely related to Marxism or Marxism's influence on Ousmane.

E is kind of a weak strengthener but I felt like it was the best one...

[farhadshekib]

The claim we are trying to strengthen is this:

"[Sembene's] binary oppositions are used analogously in West African tales..."

" ... and it seems likely that these dialectical elements are related to African oral storytelling more than, as many critics have supposed, to the Marxist components of his ideology".

(A) strengthen's this assertion by suggesting that African novelists, in fact, do use "binary oppositions".

Moreover, it suggests that they do so despite potentially knowing nothing - or very little - about Marxist theory. In other words: their use of binary oppositions is likely not influenced by Marxist theory.

[kmolloy.ucla]

I ended up getting the question correct, but I agree that it's unclear. I thought that the claim we were trying to strengthen was, "it seems likely that these dialectical elements are related to African oral storytelling more than, as many critics have supposed, to the Marxist components of his ideology."

I actually thought that the first clause in the sentence ("Such binary oppositions are used analogously in West African tales) should be taken as fact rather than as a claim. Therefore, I initially thought that choice A supported provided evidence for something we already knew to be true, while not strengthening the claim that Marxism was not an equal or greater influence on Sembene in particular.

The reason I didn't end up choosing E is that the language "some films" made it very weak, so I felt that A was more likely to be the correct answer... but I still think that the evidence needed for strengthening somehow comments on Marxism's influence (or lack of relative influence) on Sembene.

[nflamel69]

Totally agree with the point that "some films" are a little weak for s a strengthener. Also, it says it didnt play an essential role, but could it have played some role? If so, then it would weaken the argument

[jimmy902o]

I just dont feel like A weakens the argument because we cannot know for sure if they use Marxist theory... Sure it says they have not "read" Marxist theory but that doesnt tell me much. Maybe they heard about it and like it so they used it. Maybe they saw a production and liked it so they used it. Or maybe even just out of dumb luck they assembled random components that were the same thing as Marxist theory. Do we know definitively one way or another if used Marxist theory? I would argue no, just that they havent read it. This leaves upen the door to so many possibilites.

I picked E and agree that it is a weak answer but still have a very hard time believing that A is the better choice. Questions like this one frustrate me so much because there is so much subjectivity involved that it is impossible to get in the mind of the lsat authors.

[austindyoung]

I just dont feel like A weakens the argument

jimmy902o, I think you meant, "strengthens?"

Anyway, I got this question incorrect, but after review I think I have a decent explanation as to why (A) really is the best answer.

We are trying to strengthen lines 54-58, that state (paraphrase):

Binary oppositions are also used, as they are with Ousamane, in West African tales. It seems more probable that Ousamane's use of binary opposites are actually related to African oral story telling more than the Marxist ideas of that he personally subscribes to- despite what many critics say.

Ok, let's start with the losers:

(E) Well, even if binary opposition do not play an essential role in the structuring of narratives, they could still play a role, right? Actually, this answer choice allows for the possibility that binary oppositions play an important role in every single producer's or filmmaker's work who subscribes to Marxist principles-- in fact, they could play an essential role in most of them- just not in some of them.

When we actually take the qualifier words in this answer for what they are "essential" and some of the qualitative words, "some," we see this is a weak answer.

(D) is irrelevant and does not strengthen at all. Maybe very few of these N.A. and Euro filmmakers do not use binary opposites because they are not Marxist.

(C) is the opposite of what we want.

(B) So, binary oppositions are common, according to folklorists, in many oral storytelling traditions from across the world. Great- maybe they are common because those oral story telling traditions are Marxist.

So, that leaves us with (A). It says that several African novelists who draw upon West African traditions (nice, it is leading us back to lines 54-58) use binary oppositions as fundamental structures (Great! This is what we need. Now, we just need to make sure they aren't being inspired by Marxist traditions) even though they have NOT read Marx.

Perfect. They haven't read Marxist theory. Ever.

Let's look at lines 12-14, just to enforce it. Ousamane has used techniques from African oral culture, for West Africa. Answer choice (A) let's us know that these these techniques are not Marxist inspired.

One more thing-- look at how (A) and (E) both use the strong qualifier "fundamental," in the positive, and "essential," in the negative. (A) let's use know that binary oppositions are fundamental and not Marxist. (E) let's us know that binary oppositions are not essential in some ways for Marxist film artists. We see how open ended (E) is, and how narrow (A) is.

[phoebster21]

I just dont feel like A weakens the argument

jimmy902o, I think you meant, "strengthens?"

Anyway, I got this question incorrect, but after review I think I have a decent explanation as to why (A) really is the best answer.

We are trying to strengthen lines 54-58, that state (paraphrase):

Binary oppositions are also used, as they are with Ousamane, in West African tales. It seems more probable that Ousamane's use of binary opposites are actually related to African oral story telling more than the Marxist ideas of that he personally subscribes to- despite what many critics say.

Ok, let's start with the losers:

(E) Well, even if binary opposition do not play an essential role in the structuring of narratives, they could still play a role, right? Actually, this answer choice allows for the possibility that binary oppositions play an important role in every single producer's or filmmaker's work who subscribes to Marxist principles-- in fact, they could play an essential role in most of them- just not in some of them.

When we actually take the qualifier words in this answer for what they are "essential" and some of the qualitative words, "some," we see this is a weak answer.

(D) is irrelevant and does not strengthen at all. Maybe very few of these N.A. and Euro filmmakers do not use binary opposites because they are not Marxist.

(C) is the opposite of what we want.

(B) So, binary oppositions are common, according to folklorists, in many oral storytelling traditions from across the world. Great- maybe they are common because those oral story telling traditions are Marxist.

So, that leaves us with (A). It says that several African novelists who draw upon West African traditions (nice, it is leading us back to lines 54-58) use binary oppositions as fundamental structures (Great! This is what we need. Now, we just need to make sure they aren't being inspired by Marxist traditions) even though they have NOT read Marx.

Perfect. They haven't read Marxist theory. Ever.

Let's look at lines 12-14, just to enforce it. Ousamane has used techniques from African oral culture, for West Africa. Answer choice (A) let's us know that these these techniques are not Marxist inspired.

One more thing-- look at how (A) and (E) both use the strong qualifier "fundamental," in the positive, and "essential," in the negative. (A) let's use know that binary oppositions are fundamental and not Marxist. (E) let's us know that binary oppositions are not essential in some ways for Marxist film artists. We see how open ended (E) is, and how narrow (A) is.

The issue with E is that it simply doesn't address whether Semb was influenced by Marxist practices or not. Break it down into two separate groups of people:

1) People who USE binary oppositions

2) People who DONT use binary oppositions


Now, WITHIN each group, we have subcategories
1) People who USE binary oppositions and are:
a) influenced by Marxism
b) influenced from some other cultural tradition (here, west african oral)
2) People who DONT use binary oppositions but are:
a) still influenced (or i guess just aware of) by Marxism
b) people who just know what binary opposition is w/o knowing marxism but just don't use it anyway

The author would argue that Semb is group 1B. BUT just because there ARE people who ARE in group 2A, doesn't do anything to Strengthen the claim that Semb developed the use of binary opposition on his own.

[jadewzheng]

Got this question wrong twice so posting my thoughts here as a reminder and hopefully it'll help someone else!

Question type: strengthen
Premise: Sembene was trained in Moscow
Premise: Critics think the use of binary opposition in Sembene's films are influenced by Marxist components.
Premise: Such binary oppositions are used also in West African tales
The author's view (conclusion): Sembene's use binary opposition in his films are more related to African oral story telling than Marxist components.

Simplified:
It is possible that Cause 1 (C1) and Cause 2 (C2) both lead to Effect (E), but author claims C1 is more responsible for E than C2 is. How do we know this is the case? By removing one of C1 or C2 to see if E is still there.
Answer Choice A does this by keeping "Western African oral tradition" and removing the influence of Marxist principles to show that the Effect (use of binary oppositions) still exists, thereby showing the influence of Marxist principle for Sembene (who also draws upon Western African oral tradition) was probably negligible.

It is also important to note that the author isn't making a general claim about when or whether or not Marxist principles influence people to use binary oppositions. He is specifically comparing its influence with Western African oral story telling in the case of Sembene.
For answer E, all we know is that when C2 (Marxist principle) is in play, E sometimes does not show up. It's not helpful for us to discern whether or not C2 is more of an influence than C1(Western African oral traditions).

In natural sciences/social sciences terms, what Choice A does is to provide a control group to test the effect of a condition called "influence of Marxist principles."

[andrewgong01]

Is the use of "several" in "A" weak though ?Such as in this problem: https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/foru ... t1394.html Other than that I agree that "A" is a good answer for the reasons listed earlier; however, it was the use of "several" that I think makes this a 'poor' answer choice because it does not have the punching force of saying this is common or above 50%.

Because of that in the end I chose B . I thought it was inferable that these traditions (in the answer choice B) are traditional traditions and not newer Marxian traditions (it seems inferable to say that Marxism is not a traditional tradition from African culture) and hence "B" should be a stronger strengthener since it effectively confirms that the use of binary opposition is really common in folktales and not unique to Marxism. I understand the previous poster's point that we don't know if other folktales got it from Marxism but at the same time I thought the answer choice excluded Marxism from tradition for the inference that Marxism is not a traditional Western AFrican tradition

I am assuming the LSAT then , for "A" to be correct , "B" used many later on, which is weak or "B" was not specific enough that this encompasses Western African tradition and Western African folktale (e.g. every folktale on Earth but Western African folktales conform to thhe binary pattern use)

[ohthatpatrick]

The quantity of "several" certainly isn't very strong, since it just means "3 or 4".

But "many", in (B), is also not very strong, since it just means "at least a handful".

So which of these better helps you go along with the idea that West African filmmaker Sembene is getting his binary oppositions from West African tradition, rather than from Marxist theory?

(A) there are 3 or 4 African novelists who use binary oppositions in their novels, and THEY got their binary oppositions from West African tradition, not from Marxist theory.

(B) There are at least five oral storytelling traditions across the world that use binary oppositions.

(A) is better because it's specifically about African artists (who are NOT oral storytellers) using binary oppositions in their work, as a result of West African oral traditions, not Marxism.

[AlexB984]

So B is wrong because I'm supposed to assume that Marxism, that at the earliest began in 19th century, would possibly be able to influence storytelling traditions from across the world as opposed to storytelling traditions being around before marxism and developed their own binary oppositions?