Roger Bacon, the thirteenth-century

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope4% picked this

   presumes, without providing justification, that authority opinion is

   It's irrelevant to this author whether authority opinion is often wrong, usually wrong, seldom wrong, etc. The author only brings up authority opinion to demonstrate that Bacon has acted in an apparently hypocritical way. Then she argues that his hypocrisy disqualifies his work on optics.

   4%
2. B

   Not a Flaw7% picked this

   attacks Bacon’s uncritical reliance on authority

   We're not mad at this author for holding Bacon to the same standard Bacon holds others: don't uncritically rely on authority opinion. We're mad at this author because she thinks we should throw Bacon's optics work in the trash, just because he was inconsistent when it came to relying on authority.

   7%
3. C

   Not a Flaw7% picked this

   uses Bacon’s remarks to his students as evidence of

   How dare our author treat Bacon's remarks as though they're evidence of his opinions. Just kidding. That's a normal thing to do, unless there's some extenuating circumstance that would make us think he was saying things to his students that weren't his actual opinions

   7%
4. D

   Not an Objection0% picked this

   ignores the fact that thirteenth-century science may not hold up

   This would only help the author's position that we should throw away Bacon's work on optics. He's a hypocrite and it's old science that wouldn't hold up nowadays.

   0%
5. E

   Correct82% picked this

   criticizes Bacon’s character in order to question his

   Why this is right

   The author does criticize Bacon's character: he told his students X, but nevertheless he did not-X whenever it was convenient for him to do so. And this discussion of his hypocrisy in the evidence is used in order to draw a conclusion that diminishes his scientific findings (his work on optics).

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

   82%