Logical Reasoning

PT140 · S2 · Q26 People may praise the talent

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People may praise the talent of a painter capable of realistically portraying a scene and dismiss as artistically worthless the efforts of abstract expressionists, but obviously an exact replica of the scene depicted is not the only thing people appreciate in a painting, for otherwise photography would have entirely displaced painting as an art form.

Implied Rebuttal Conclusion

People are wrong to dismiss the work of abstract expressionists as artistically worthless.

Intermediate Conclusion

Obviously exact replication is not the only thing that people prize in a painting.

Evidence

If realism were the only thing that people wanted out of a painting, then photography would have entirely displaced painting as an art from.

Evaluate

The author proves her intermediate conclusion by showing that the negation of her conclusion would entail a falsity.

Fun language, right?

A lot of Method questions involve "Implications of Logic" type argument. An author might try to shoot down a claim by arguing like this:

Some say X is true. But if X were true, then Y would be true, which would require Z. Since Z is untrue/absurd, this means that we shouldn't believe X.

Other times (like here), an author will argue for the truth of a claim by talking about the implications of rejecting it.

X is true. After all, if it weren't, then Y would be true (which we know it isn't).

Goal

It will be hard to predict the language here, but it will probably be something like .

26.

The argument proceeds by

  1. using a claim about what

    Bad Premise Match

    It's possibly fair to call the intermediate conclusion ("people appreciate more than just an exact replica in a painting") is an aesthetic principle. But is there a premise that talks about what most people appreciate? No. The premise is saying "If people only wanted a painting to replicate reality, then photography would have replaced painting." Even though that conditional contains an indirect sentiment that (most) people want a painting to do more than just replicate reality, it feels weird to call it a claim about what most people appreciate.

    28% picked this

  2. appealing to an aesthetic principle

    Out of Scope: defend the tastes

    The author isn't defending people's tastes. If anything, she's defending abstract expressionists. The author doesn't appeal to an aesthetic principle; the conclusion, not the premise, is an aesthetic principle. The author appeals to the fact that an implication of the conclusion's falsity has not occurred.

    18% picked this

  3. explaining a historical fact in

    Reversed

    The author is using a historical fact (photography never displaced painting) as a way to support a claim about the artistic preferences of people. This language would not be a correct answer, but this argument is closer to "explaining the artistic preferences of people in terms of a historical fact".

    5% picked this

  4. Correct

    appealing to a historical fact

    Why this is right

    This is in the correct order. The author appeals to the historical fact that photography didn't displace painting in order to support a claim about people's artistic preferences (exact realism is not the only thing they prefer/appreciate in a painting).

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

    40% picked this

  5. considering historical context to defend

    Out of Scope: defend preferences

    The author isn't defending people's artistic preferences. If anything, she's defending abstract expressionists against people who dismiss their efforts as artistically worthless.

    9% picked this

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