Logical Reasoning

PT118 · S4 · Q10 The enthusiastic acceptance of ascetic

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The enthusiastic acceptance of ascetic lifestyles evidenced in the surviving writings of monastic authors indicates that medieval societies were much less concerned with monetary gain than are contemporary Western cultures.

Conclusion

Medieval societies were much less concerned with money than contemporary Western cultures.

Evidence

Surviving writing from monks who lived in medieval societies show that these monks enthusiastically accepted an ascetic lifestyle of minimal subsistence.

Evaluation

Whoa, LSAC, when did this become a vocab / outside knowledge test? This is a pretty clear Sampling flaw, but it'll be hard to see it if you don't know what monastic and ascetic mean.

Monastic = monastery = where priests / monks / bishops lived Ascetic = forsaking money and material goods for a bare, minimal, austere, spartan existence.

This is an extremely biased sample. Monks are known to live an ascetic lifestyle. But they're the weirdos of society (no offense, monks). They're not representative of society.

This would be like a human anthropologist a thousand years from now saying,

Goal

Look for an answer suggesting that the devotional religious types at a monastery aren't necessarily the most representative members of society, from which to base a generalization about that society.

10.

The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

  1. employs the imprecise term “ascetic”

    Not a Flaw

    Answers that are asking for specific measurements or precise definitions are always wrong. Ascetic has a specific enough meaning; the fact that most of us don't know it doesn't make it imprecise.

    2% picked this

  2. Correct

    generalizes from a sample that

    Why this is right

    People that live cloistered lives in religious sanctuaries aren't exactly Joe Average, so using something we know about monastic folk (i.e. "They prayed eight times a day, and went to church seven days a week") wouldn't be something you'd automatically assume is true of most of their society.

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

    80% picked this

  3. applies contemporary standards inappropriately to

    Not Inappropriate

    The author's conclusion is comparing contemporary standards of money-lust vs. those of medieval societies. There's nothing wrong or inappropriate with making that comparison. The flaw was in thinking that we know what the money-lust standards of medieval standards are by applying the standards of medieval monks.

    13% picked this

  4. inserts personal opinions into what

    No Opinions

    There are no personal opinions expressed. We are trying to factually assess which society was more concerned with financial gain. The only evidence isn't an opinion, it's the testimony of medieval monks.

    2% picked this

  5. advances premises that are inconsistent

    No Contradiction

    This answer describes the famous flaw Internal Contradiction, which is almost always wrong. There's also only one premise, so it's impossible for there to be contradictory premises here.

    3% picked this

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