Literature Expert: Great pieces of literature have often caused outrag

Question

Literature Expert: Great pieces of literature have often caused outrage among the public when first published; for example Ulysses by James Joyce was banned for years due to its alleged obscenity, and Walt Whitman’s poem collection, Leaves of Grass, was banned for its use of explicit language. So, since literature often causes outrage and shock, we should not limit the use of public funds to support books that many people find obscene.

Which of the following is an assumption that the literature expert’s argument requires in order to properly come to his or her conclusion?

A. Most literature is obscene.
B. James Joyce and Walt Whitman received public funding for their writing.
C. Literature was more shocking in the past.
D. Public funds should be used to support literature.
E. Literature should not be shocking or obscene.

LSAT

AshutoshB · Answer

Official Explanation

The best answer is D. This is an assumption question. The author of the argument must be assuming that public funds should be used to support literature, or nothing else in the argument would make any sense at all. If public funds should not be used to support literature, any discussion of what type of literature ought to be supported would be meaningless. The statements made in the other answer choices might or might not be true, but they are not assumptions necessary to connect the stated evidence of the stimulus argument to its conclusion.

Chef · Answer

Is it D? Based on scope alone, I choose D.

It presents a reasoning logic and then changes the scope to public funds in the conclusion.

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madhankumar666 · Answer

If we negate the answer choices only D withstands. Other options are out of scope and has no effect in conclusion if we negate it.

madhankumar666 · Answer

If we negate the answer choices only D withstands. Other options are out of scope and has no effect in conclusion if we negate it.

Krishaa12 · Answer

B is focusing on evidence not argument ... Plz correct me if I am wrong

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Chef · Answer

The evidence/fact in the argument are the first two sentences in the argument. Option B is a far-fetched opinion, I think. 
How do we even know it it is true? It cannot be an assumption. It is also not an inference.

Also - please note: argument = Evidence/Fact + opinion/conclusion. I would suggest you be specific in your reference (I assume you meant conclusion when you said argument above). Being specific in our question/articulation helps.

naveengmat15 · Answer

Why not B?  GMATNinja   bb   KarishmaB

unraveled · Answer

Literature Expert: Great pieces of literature have often caused outrage among the public when first published; for example Ulysses by James Joyce was banned for years due to its alleged obscenity, and Walt Whitman’s poem collection, Leaves of Grass, was banned for its use of explicit language. So,  since literature often causes outrage and shock , we should not limit the use of public funds to support books that many people find obscene.

Which of the following is an assumption that the literature expert’s argument requires in order to properly come to his or her conclusion?

A.  Most  literature is obscene. - WRONG. Extreme case but even if we consider such a scenario nothing happens to the passage. 
B. James Joyce and Walt Whitman received public funding for their writing. - WRONG. Well this could be possible but it is equally likely that both might have funded writings personally. 
C. Literature was  more shocking in the past . - WRONG. A comparison is not ascertainable from the passage. Even if we assume this there's no impact on the passage. 
D. Public funds should be used to support literature. - CORRECT. Though POE helps, this looks so easy at first instance that it i unbelievable. However, if this is not the case then we might not conclude the we have in the highlighted text and thereafter. 
E. Literature  should not be  shocking or obscene. - WRONG. The argument is altogether finished i.e. we don't have the argument anymore. So, this can't be the answer. What makes the argument exist as it is?

Answer D.

KarishmaB · Answer

I don't understand the question and I doubt it is an official LSAT question. It doesn't make much sense, though I agree that I knew that the answer is (D) but only because the conclusion mentions 'public funds' while none of the premises mention that term. So the assumption had to link 'public funds' to the argument.

We are given that Joyce and Whitman wrote literature and they are given here as examples to show how literature often causes outrage. But we don't need to say that they did get public funding. It is not necessary that every lit writer gets public funding and to make our statement, we don't need that Joyce and Whitman must have got public funding. Hence (B) doesn't make sense.

A problem with (D) is that it uses the term 'should' which is used to give an opinion, not a fact. If we replace it by 'are' it may make a bit more sense but even then, the argument is not cogent.

This is what the argument becomes:

Premises:

Public funds are used to support literature.
Literature often causes outrage and shock

Conclusion: We should not limit the use of public funds to support books that many people find obscene.

It would make more sense if we were to say that we should not limit the use of public funds to support literature. In that case, the author would have given some support (premises) to his conclusion - Don't use public funds for lit because people find lit shocking.

On the whole, I am not convinced with the question.

Literature Expert: Great pieces of literature have often caused outrag

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Literature Expert: Great pieces of literature have often caused outrag

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