LSAT Question Explanation
PT 105, Section 4, Question 17
Must be TrueExplanation
This stimulus is just two conditional statements. If excessively generous, then not levelheaded. If levelheaded, not bold.
P1: Excessively generous → Levelheaded
P2: Levelheaded → Bold
Answer choices
This isn't supported. We know that everyone who is excessively generous is not levelheaded. But what would guarantee someone is not bold is if they are levelheaded.
We don't know anything about everyone who is not bold. It's not a sufficient condition for anything.
This is worded in a more confusing way but it means the exact same thing as (B). It translates to "if not bold, then doesn't lack excessive generosity." Not supported.
This is proven by the stimulus. Premise 2 tells us that levelheaded people are not bold. And premise 1 told us that all excessively generous people are not levelheaded, so we can infer that levelheaded people aren't excessively generous.
This matches premise 2 and matches the contrapositive of premise 1.
P2: Levelheaded → Bold
P1 Contrapositive: Levelheaded → Excessively generous
Unsupported. Being not levelheaded is a necessary condition of being bold and of being excessively generous. This treats it as sufficient.
Based on the stimulus if we're presented with someone who is not levelheaded we can't make a certain conclusion about any of their other traits. They might be generous, or bold, or both, or neither.