LSAT Discussion Forum

Could someone help me check my reasoning on this question? I narrowed my choices down to A or D, and found it really difficult to chose.

A seemed suggested by the first sentence of the 2nd paragraph, which says that under a private property concept, “groups functioning legally as individuals” could own property. However, I wondered whether a group functioning as an individual would, from the LSAT's perspective, technically not count as a "group of individuals," and therefore it would still be the case that the passage suggests that, under a private concept, groups of individuals are not allowed to own property.

The reason I thought D might be suggested by the passage was because in paragraph 2 it says “collective ownership casts an individual in the role of guardian or caretaker rather than titleholder." I wasn’t sure if that meant the collective concept excluded the possibility an individual *could* function as titleholder. I decided that the logic behind my objection to this answer was shakier than my logic behind my objection to A, but really didn't feel confident either way, and was wondering if I'm missing something.

Thank you!

flex,

What you seem to be saying is that either "groups functioning legally as individuals" are either groups of individuals (in which case answer choice (A) is wrong, because then the private concept would allow them to own property) or the passage doesn't clarify. So the passage would be silent on it; that doesn't validate what you said: "passage suggests that, under a private concept, groups of individuals are not allowed to own property." That's not true at all; if the passage does not clarify, then it says nothing. So either the passage proves answer choice (A) false, or the passage gives inadequate information to prove it true. Well, for a Must Be True-Except question, anything not necessarily true (either by being false or unproven) is the answer. So I don't think that a decisive answer as to whether the passage considers "groups functioning legally as individuals" and "groups of individuals" synonymous is actually relevant.

The language of "rather than" is definitely exclusive.

Robert Carroll

Thank you -- I think part of my problem was not recognizing this as a Must Be True - Except question.