Logical Reasoning

PT112 · S3 · Q17 The purpose of a general theory

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The purpose of a general theory of art is to explain every aesthetic feature that is found in any of the arts.

Statements

The purpose of a general theory of art is to explain every aesthetic feature found in any arts.

pivot (however) Premodern general theories focused primarily on painting and sculpture.

conditional (every) All premodern general theories fail to to explain some aesthetic feature of music.

Evaluate

We read Inference paragraphs looking for ideas that could be combined, usually via some Overlapping idea. In this paragraph, "general theory of art" was mentioned in all three claims. How can we combine them?

There's also a pivot word, however, which usually signals that we're supposed to Reconcile the Pivot -- figure out how to resolve the tension between what came before and after it.

The purpose of a general theory is to explain every feature of all the arts. Every premodern general theory fails to explain some feature of music.

Goal

It sounds like every premodern general theory of art fails to achieve its purpose.

I would go in anticipating that, but you never know with Inference questions. We just want the most supportable answer.

17.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following?

  1. Any general theory of art

    Too Strong: any

    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% picked this

  2. A general theory of art

    Too Strong

    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% picked this

  3. Any theory of art that

    Too Strong: any

    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.

    15% picked this

  4. Correct

    No premodern general theory of

    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.

    61% picked this

  5. No premodern general theory of

    Too Strong

    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% picked this

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