Logical Reasoning

PT103 · S3 · Q17 Parents who wish to provide a strong

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Parents who wish to provide a strong foundation for the musical ability of their children should provide them with a good musical education.

Conclusion

Parents who want a strong musical foundation for their children need to ensure those children receive formal instruction.

Evidence (since)

To provide a strong foundation, parents should provide a good musical education. And formal instruction is often part of a good musical education.

Evaluate

We'd be trying to argue that parents who want the strong musical foundation don't need to ensure their kid gets formal instruction.

In other words,

The author will say, .

We could respond with something like,

Goal

Let's look for an answer that helps us argue that you can get your kid a good musical education without formal instruction, and thus formal instruction is not needed.

17.

The reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it fails to consider that

  1. parents might not be the

    Bad Objection

    This seems more like it agrees with the author than disagrees. Was the author thinking that parents would be the only source of a kid's musical education? No, the author is insisting on formal instruction, which presumably comes from a non-parent. So the author isn't failing to consider this possibility; she's recommending that parents not be the only source of musical education.

    2% picked this

  2. some children might not be

    Bad Objection

    Whether kids will go along with any of our plans for their strong musical foundation is a separate conversation. This is just a debate about whether the path to a strong foundation must include formal instruction. If this answer said something like, "most kids will resist formal instruction", it would feel more like a weakener, but even then it wouldn't actually weaken because the argument is making any claims about how many kids can get a strong foundation. She is only claiming that for those who do get a strong foundation, formal instruction was a necessary part of it.

    1% picked this

  3. there are many examples of

    Bad Objection

    Was the author thinking that "every person with formal instruction has good musical ability"? No. So, this answer can't weaken her argument. The argument doesn't claim formal instruction is sufficient for musical ability, only that it's required for a strong foundation.

    16% picked this

  4. Correct

    formal instruction might not always

    Why this is right

    This would definitely weaken! If good musical instruction sometimes doesn't include formal instruction, then we can argue that "parents who want a strong musical foundation for their kids (which requires a good musical education) don't need to have formal instruction. It's possible to get good musical instruction without formal instruction." We could think of this argument as a Plan / Recommendation, where there is an Intermediate Goal (good musical education) and the author is concluding a Required Solution (formal instruction). We are objecting by pointing out that there are Alternative ways to get good musical education, which don't include the supposedly-required solution of formal instruction.

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

    72% picked this

  5. some children might become good

    Bad Objection

    This would only hurt the author's thinking, if she thinks, "No one becomes a good musician without a good musical education!" But she never said or suggested that idea. She said / suggested that, "no one gets a strong foundation for musical ability without a good musical education". Getting a strong foundation is very different from being a good musician, so this is drifting away from the actual relevant terms of the argument.

    10% picked this

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