LSAT 145 – Section 2 – Question 09

LSAT 145 - Section 2 - Question 09

December 2015

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT145 S2 Q09
+LR
Sufficient assumption +SA
Conditional Reasoning +CondR
Link Assumption +LinkA
A
0%
148
B
92%
163
C
1%
148
D
6%
158
E
2%
155
125
136
147
 +Easier 145.859 +SubsectionMedium

J.Y.’s explanation

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Live Commentary

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Columnist: Video games are not works of art. No matter how rich the aesthetic experience produced by a video game might be, it is interactive: players make choices that affect the outcome of the game. For something to be a work of art, it must produce an aesthetic experience that is controlled by the artist or artists who created the work.

Summary
Video games aren’t art. Why not? Because they’re interactive experiences. Art, meanwhile, must be an experience controlled by its creators. (Contrapositive: if it’s not controlled by its creators, it’s not art.)

Missing Connection
We know that something fails to be a work of art whenever it’s not controlled by its creators. But what does that have to do with video games? All we know about video games is that they’re interactive. Does being interactive mean the experience isn’t controlled by its creators? The author doesn’t say.
The conclusion would follow if we knew for sure that when an aesthetic experience is interactive, it’s not at all controlled by its creators.

A
Most video game creators do not intend their video games to be works of art.
Intentions are irrelevant. None of the premises suggest that a creator’s intentions have any influence on whether something is art. Also, any assumption about “most” video game creators will be too weak to guarantee the conclusion that no video games are art.
B
An aesthetic experience cannot be both interactive and controlled by the artist or artists who created the work.
This says that if an aesthetic experience (such as a video game or work of art) is interactive, then it’s not controlled by its creators. We know that video games are interactive, so the conclusion now follows: video games aren’t controlled by their creators, so they’re not art.
C
For something to be a work of art, it must produce a rich aesthetic experience.
Contrapositive: if something doesn’t produce a rich aesthetic experience, it’s not art. But do all video games produce a rich aesthetic experience? We don’t know. So (C) doesn’t lead us to the conclusion.
D
Typically, video game players do not themselves create video games.
An assumption about what’s typical will be too weak to guarantee the conclusion that no video games are art. Also, whether or not a player also happens to create games tells us nothing about whether the things a player experiences are controlled by the game’s own creators.
E
Players’ choices that have no effect on the outcome of a video game are irrelevant to the aesthetic experience produced by that game.
What matters about a game’s aesthetic experience is whether it’s controlled by the game’s creators. (If not, then games aren’t art.) (E) doesn’t tell us anything about creator control. In fact, it doesn’t tell us anything that’s relevant to aesthetic experience at all.

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LSAT PrepTest 145 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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