Logical Reasoning

PT102 · S3 · Q21 Medieval Arabs had manuscripts

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Medieval Arabs had manuscripts of many ancient Greek texts, which were translated into Arabic when there was a demand for them.

Conclusion (evidently)

Medieval Arab poets didn't have much interest in Aristotle's Poetics.

Evidence

When people were interested in a Greek text (such as Aristotle or Homer), it got translated into Arabic.

If a poet were interested in Aristotle's Poetics, then they would also be interested in reading Homer. But Homer was not translated into Arabic until long after medieval times.

Evaluate

This is certainly a very confusing read. It would be especially hard if a student were unaware that Aristotle and Homer are examples of ancient Greek texts.

The argument seems pretty reasonable. It's going off a couple conditionals:

Medieval Arabs → text gets translated interested in text from Greek to Arab

If Homer wasn't translated into Arab until modern times, then the conditional does tell us that Medieval Arabs weren't interested in Homer.

But the author is trying to prove that the Medieval Arab poets weren't interested in Aristotle's Poetics, based on the fact that anyone who read that would have wanted to read Homer, since Aristotle refers to Homer.

Where is a gap in this argument? It seems like maybe the Arab poets could have been interested in Aristotle's Poetics and just had some other way to understand the parts about Homer (maybe they wouldn't really need Homer's works translated in order to follow the references Aristotle makes).

Goal

Not really sure what to look for here. We want to be more convinced that medieval Arab poets weren't interested in Aristotle's Poetics. The answer might provide an additional reason for believing that, or it might help us squash out any doubt by making it seem even more like, .

21.

Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports the argument above?

  1. Correct

    A number of medieval Arab

    Why this is right

    This answer basically provides a Necessary Assumption of the author's storyline. Arabs could only translate the texts they possessed. If they didn't have a copy of Homer's ancient Greek manuscripts, then whether they had interest in Homer or not, they wouldn't have been able to translate Homer. The fact that they possessed manuscripts of Homer but those manuscripts weren't translated until modern times increases the plausibility of the idea that the medieval Arab poets weren't interested in Homer, which in turn increases the plausibility of the conclusion that the medieval Arab poets weren't interested in Aristotle. This is one of those Strengthen correct answers that (because it's providing a Necessary Assumption) is really more about avoiding the opposite. If Arab translators didn't have any manuscripts of Homer, then that would badly weaken the argument. That would allow someone to say that Arab poets were interested in Aristotle's Poetics, and thus interested in Homer, but just had no ability to translate Homer since they didn't have his manuscripts. Since this answer would badly weaken if it weren't true, it strengthens at least somewhat to be told that it is true.

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

    63% picked this

  2. Medieval Arabic story cycles, such

    Too Weak

    Too Weak: in some ways similar Opposite (if anything) You could probably take any book or story in the world and say that it is "in some ways similar to parts" of the Homeric epics. That book you're reading has characters? And a plot? And a setting? Wow, well then it's similar in some ways to parts of the Homeric epics. Also, this answer seems more like it would help someone argue that the Arab poets would have been interested in Homer, which is the opposite of what the author is thinking.

    8% picked this

  3. In addition to translating from

    No Impact

    Cool fact, (C), but translations from other languages are completely out of scope to this conversation about translating Greek texts by Aristotle and Homer.

    5% picked this

  4. Aristotle’ s Poetics has frequently

    Out of Scope: modern Arab poets

    We don't care what modern Arab poets are interested in. We know that Homer has been translated into Arabic by modern times. This argument is about assessing what medieval Arab poets were into.

    14% picked this

  5. Aristotle’s Poetics is largely concerned

    Unclear Impact

    This might seem to kind of support the idea that medieval Arab poets wouldn't have had interest in Aristotle's Poetics, if it's largely concerned with drama. For this to strengthen, we'd be assuming that poets were usually not interested in stuff that was largely concerned with drama. But is that a safe assumption? We might be adding on too much there. If philosophers were interested in Poetics, even though it was about drama, then it's very possible that poets might be interested too (poetry seems at least as relevant to drama as philosophy does).

    10% picked this

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