Logical Reasoning

PT10 · S1 · Q17 A contract, whether expressed or unexpressed

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A contract, whether expressed or unexpressed, exists when two parties engage with each other for the reciprocal transfer of benefits.

Conclusion

An artist who accepts public funds creates at least an unexpressed contract with the public, and the public can rightly expect to benefit from the artist's work.

Evidence

Definition: a contract exists when two parties engage with each other for the reciprocal transfer of benefits. The artist takes public funds (one direction of benefit).

Evaluate

The flaw: the contract definition requires reciprocal (two-way) benefit. The author shows only one direction — public funds going to the artist. The author then concludes a contract exists and the public will receive a benefit back. But the existence of a contract requires the reciprocity to already be in place — you can't conclude a contract exists from the fact of one-way benefit and then derive the other direction from the contract you just declared.

Goal

Find an answer describing this move: applying a definition (which has multiple criteria) to a situation that only meets one of the criteria.

17.

Which one of the following most accurately describes an error in reasoning in the passage?

  1. attempting to justify a rule

    Bad Description

    The argument doesn't justify a rule of conduct on the grounds that all parties benefit. It applies a definition (contract) to a situation. The flaw isn't about justifying behavior by mutual benefit — it's about misapplying the definition itself.

    16% picked this

  2. Correct

    concluding that a definition is

    Why this is right

    This describes the flaw. The definition of contract requires reciprocal (two-way) transfer of benefits. The situation, as described, conforms only partially: the artist receives funds, but no benefit yet flows the other way. The author treats the definition as fully applicable based on partial conformity, which is exactly the move described.

    Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    74% picked this

  3. speaking only in abstract terms

    Bad Description

    The argument is general but the issue isn't abstraction. The flaw is the misapplication of a definition — not the use of abstract terms over case-by-case reasoning. Even at the abstract level the argument's logic fails.

    8% picked this

  4. confusing the type of mental

    Bad Description

    The argument doesn't conflate individual mental states with group mental states. It's about whether a contractual relationship exists — not about confusing types of mental activity.

    1% picked this

  5. treating an issue that requires

    Bad Description

    The argument doesn't treat a political issue as a matter of opinion. It applies a definitional concept (contract) to a fact pattern. There's no claim that political processes are being skipped or treated as merely subjective.

    0% picked this

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