The purpose of a general theory

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: any4% picked this

   Any general theory of art that explains the aesthetic features of painting also explains

   This paragraph only talks about premodern general theories of art, but this answer is about all general theories of art ever. There's no way we could possibly say that every general theory ever invented that adequately explains paintings also explains sculpture. It's very possible that among all the general theories of art ever created, there's at least one that explained painting but not sculpture.

   4%
2. B

   Too Strong8% picked this

   A general theory of art that explains every aesthetic feature of music will

   This is saying that as long as a general theory of art explains music well, it achieves its purpose. That's practically contradicted by the first sentence, which says that for a general theory to achieve its purpose, it should explain all the arts.

   8%
3. C

   Too Strong: any14% picked this

   Any theory of art that focuses primarily on sculpture and painting cannot explain every aesthetic

   We know that all premodern general theories of art focused primarily on sculpture/painting, but didn't explain music. But that doesn't mean we can turn that into a universal rule that applies to all theories of art ever that primarily focus on sculpture and painting. Just because the premodern general theories didn't explain art doesn't mean that's a guaranteed trait of every theory of art that focuses primarily on painting and sculpture.

   14%
4. D

   Correct62% picked this

   No premodern general theory of art achieves its purpose unless music

   Why this is right

   "Unless" can be translated as "if not". If it's not the case that [music is not art], then no premodern general theory of art achieves its purpose. i.e. If music is art, then all the premodern general theories of art fail to achieve the purpose of a general theory of art. After all, the purpose is to explain all features of all arts, and all the premodern general theories fail to explain music. This answer took the inference we predicted, "all premodern general theories failed to achieve their purpose" and put it into a wacky conditional.

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

   62%
5. E

   Too Strong13% picked this

   No premodern general theory of art explains any aesthetic features of music that are not shared

   This answer is saying that the only parts of music that premodern general theories got right were the parts that overlapped with painting and sculpture. But we can't say something that strong. All we were told was that there was at least some part of music that the premodern general theories failed to explain. The theories might still have been able to explain 99% of music's features (including ones that didn't overlap with painting and sculpture).

   13%