Logical Reasoning

PT107 · S3 · Q18 To classify a work of art as truly

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To classify a work of art as truly great, it is necessary that the work have both originality and far-reaching influence upon the artistic community.

Principle

Originality Truly Great Art → and Far-reaching influence on art community

~Original or → ~Truly Great Art ~Far reaching influence

Evaluate

When we do these Apply the Principle type questions, we want to realize that given a principle like this, X → Y ~Y → ~X we can only use that principle to conclude that something is Y or that it is ~X.

Given the rule if you're in NYC, you're in the USA we could only use that rule to prove that someone is in the USA or to prove that someone isn't in NYC.

Lots of trap answers on Apply the Principle questions involve trying to use these rules in an illegal backwards or opposite fashion.

Goal

This rule can prove that art is not truly great, but it has no power to prove art is great, so we can quickly eliminate any answer that is using this rule to conclude that art is great.

It's also theoretically possible to use this rule to conclude that certain art is both "original and has far reaching influence", but it's almost unheard of for LSAC to apply the rule in a way where you conclude the Criteria, rather than the Judgy Term.

By "judgy term" I mean the part of the conditional that seems to express a judgment (permissible / justified / wrong / just / great, etc.)

Whenever I'm doing an Apply the Principle question, if the first way I write the conditional feels like it's putting a Judgy term on the left and Criteria on the right, I'll contrapose to make it Criteria → Judgy term

18.

The principle above, if valid, most strongly supports which one of the following arguments?

  1. By breaking down traditional schemes

    Bad Conclusion Match

    There's no reason to read this answer, since it's concluding "truly great", and the rule doesn't give us any way to prove something is truly great. If we know it's truly great, then we can say for sure it's original and far-reaching, but knowing it's original / far-reaching can't prove to us that it's truly great.

    2% picked this

  2. Correct

    Some of the most original

    Why this is right

    Our principle says, not original or ? not truly great not far-reaching Since this argument establishes that this art does not have far-reaching influence (only minor influence), that is enough to trigger the rule and guarantee that this art is not truly great.

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

    59% picked this

  3. Certain examples of the drumming

    Bad Conclusion Match

    There's no reason to read this answer, since it's concluding "truly great", and the rule doesn't give us any way to prove something is truly great. If we know it's truly great, then we can say for sure it's original and far-reaching, but knowing it's original / far-reaching can't prove to us that it's truly great.

    32% picked this

  4. The piece of art in

    Bad Conclusion Match

    There's no reason to read this answer, since it's concluding "not original", and the rule doesn't give us any way to prove something is not original. If we know it's truly great, then we can say for sure it's original, but knowing it's not truly great doesn't tell us anything about whether it's original / far-reaching.

    1% picked this

  5. Since Bach’s music is truly

    Weak Conclusion Match

    We have a rule that says Truly Great ? Orig and Far-Reaching Influence on artistic community Once we establish that Bach's music is truly great, we can say two things 1. Bach's music is original 2. Bach's music had a far-reaching influence upon the artistic community. This answer choice is fine when it comes to #1, but saying that something had a "far-reaching influence on the artistic community" doesn't mean that it had a major influence on musicians (maybe it had some influence on musicians, but not major, and some influence on painters / sculptors / dancers / poets, etc.) It's also the case that "far-reaching influence on the artistic community" doesn't mean that it had broad popular appeal. Something might be huge among artists (maybe they really appreciate John Coltrane, for example) but not broadly popular.

    7% picked this

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