LSAT 111 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q11

LR Question 11 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Teacher to a student: You agree that it is bad to break promises…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: The student should break her alleged promise to Jeanne and tell the teacher the truth.

REASONING: We promise each other to tell the truth and lying would be breaking that promise.

ANALYSIS: The teacher has given the student a hard choice. If they lie they break a promise (to the teacher.) But if they tell the truth they also break a promise (to Jeanne.)

The teaching is assuming that the implicit promise to tell the truth is more important.

___________

1. It doesn’t matter what most people do. We’re talking about whether this particular student should break a promise.
2. We have no idea if breaking the student’s promise is in Jeanne’s best interest. Probably not, she’ll get in trouble.
3. Telling a lie is breaking a promise, according to the teacher. In any case we’re not considering all of the consequences. We’re only considering which promise the student should break. 
4. CORRECT. The teacher is assuming that the implicit promise not to lie is more important than the explicit promise made to Jeanne. 
5. The teacher is assuming that this is not true because they’re asking the student to break her promise to Jeanne.