Art critic: Abstract paintings are

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: cannot12% picked this

   Abstract painting cannot stimulate people to

   This argument already established that abstract painting doesn’t spur people into political action; it doesn’t need to assume the extreme position that it can’t stimulate people into any action.

   12%
2. B

   Out of Scope: insignificant activity4% picked this

   Unless people view representations of social injustice, their political activity

   This argument was about whether a certain art form was politically significant. This answer is tossing a word salad and suddenly talking about whether political activity is significant.

   4%
3. C

   Too Strong3% picked this

   Only art that prompts people to counter social injustice is

   Too Strong: only Out of Scope: counter social injustice We’re only talking about spurring / prompting people into political action, not necessarily countering social injustice. We’re also only talking about whether an art form is politically significant, whereas this answer is trying to define a rule for all significant art. When an answer on Necessary Assumption is conditional, we can also look at how it would be diagrammed (and its contrapositive) and consider whether that would match any move the author made. Doesn’t spur ? Not people to counter significant social injustice art It’s very close to what we want, but we want Doesn’t spur people ? Not politically into political action significant art

   3%
4. D

   Correct75% picked this

   Paintings that fail to move a viewer to political action cannot

   Why this is right

   This provides the missing link we predicted. Doesn’t spur people ? Not politically into political action significant art If we negated this, we could object to the argument: “Hey, author — sure abstract paintings can’t represent social injustice, so they can’t spur people into political action. But paintings that fail to move a viewer to political action can still be politically significant. So you can’t conclude that abstract painting is a politically insignificant art form.”

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

   75%
5. E

   Out of Scope6% picked this

   The interplay of color, texture, and form is not a measure of the worth

   Out of Scope: representational Too Strong: not a measure Unmentioned ? Opposite This answer is doing the age old trap answer pattern of pretending like if the author says “Tall children love their moms” that it’s somehow assuming that “children who aren’t tall don’t love their moms”. Because the argument said that for nonrepresentational paintings, the interplay of color / texture / form was the measure of the worth, this answer is saying “oh, then you’re assuming that for representational paintings, those things aren’t any measure of worth”. This argument did need to assume that “the interplay of color, texture, and form cannot represent instances of social injustice in a clearly comprehensible way”, but that’s it.

   6%