Logical Reasoning

PT124 · S2 · Q14 The authorship of the Iliad

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The authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey has long been debated.

Conclusion (ought)

We ought to accept the verdict of tradition that Homer is principal author of both works.

Evidence (since)

Some traditional evidence says Homer wrote at least large portions of both, but there's equally forceful evidence that Homer had nothing to do with either of them.

There's no overwhelming evidence for either claim.

Evaluate

The author is balancing tradeoffs ... some traditional evidence says Homer / equally good evidence says not-Homer.

There's no overwhelming evidence for either, so the author decides that "tie goes to tradition".

Goal

Look for something like,

If ... There isn't overwhelming evidence for one claim over another claim

Then ... go with the one that's the more traditional one

14.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the principle underlying the argumentation above?

  1. If there is no overwhelming

    Bad Conclusion Match

    The first half of this perfectly matches the evidence, but the conclusion wasn't "suspend judgment as to its truth", it was "accept the verdict of tradition".

    6% picked this

  2. Correct

    If a hypothesis goes against

    Why this is right

    If we contrapose this, it looks a lot more like our argument: If ... Then ... there isn't overwhelming should not accept evidence for a hypothesis that hypothesis that goes against tradition It ends up being a rule that applies to the newer not-Homer evidence. The hypothesis that Homer had nothing to do with either the Iliad or the Odyssey goes against tradition. We don't have overwhelming evidence for it. Thus, according to this answer, we should not accept that hypothesis. Through inertia, that leaves us continuing to go with the verdict of tradition. This answer certainly doesn't firmly prove we ought to accept the traditional verdict (it only proves we shouldn't accept the nontraditional verdict), but that's still the best strengthener up here.

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

    60% picked this

  3. If there is no overwhelming

    Bad Conclusion Match

    There is no overwhelming evidence for or against both of these hypotheses, so this rule would say that we should believe both hypotheses. The actual conclusion is that we should accept the verdict of tradition, and the other hypothesis contradicts that. So believing both hypotheses would be incoherently believing two contradictory things.

    21% picked this

  4. One should accept the authority

    Reversed Logic

    Since the conclusion is "we should accept the verdict of tradition", we need a principle that puts that idea on the right of the arrow. Conclusions need to match the right side of the arrow. But here, the only if indicates that the idea following it goes on the right, so this answer would look like this: should accept the ? one has nontraditional authority of tradition evidence for trad hypothesis We can quickly ditch this answer once we see our conclusion is on the Left side, as it is functionally hopeless for us. As it turns out, the other half of the answer wouldn't match up with anything anyway. We never talk about nontraditional evidence.

    1% picked this

  5. One should defer to the

    Bad Trigger Match

    This rule has the correct right side to it. two or more hypotheses ? should defer to conflict with tradition authority of tradition But can we match that trigger up with the evidence. Were we told that two or more hypotheses conflict with the traditional idea that Homer wrote both works? No, we were only told about one hypothesis ("he had nothing to do with either") that conflicts with that traditional idea.

    12% picked this

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