Logical Reasoning

PT141 · S2 · Q10 Actor: Bertolt Brecht's plays

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Actor: Bertolt Brecht's plays are not genuinely successful dramas.

Conclusion

BB's plays are not genuinely successful dramas.

Evidence

For a play to succeed, audiences must care what happens to at least some of the characters.

In BB's plays, audiences always find it difficult to discern any of the characters' personalities.

Evaluate

There's no new term in the Conclusion. BB's plays are described in the evidence, and there's a logical rule provided that allows us to conclude that a drama is unsuccessful.

The latter is more important, since that's our job on this problem:

audiences don't care what not successful what happens to any of → drama the characters

Our #1 job in the answer choices, then, is to establish that when it comes to BB's plays, audiences don't care about what happens to the characters.

The one detail we currently have, that an answer choice could build onto, is that when it comes to BB's plays, audiences find it difficult or impossible to discern any of the character's personalities.

Goal

The most likely answer would connect what we know about the audience reaction to BB's plays (can't discern personality), to the audience reaction that proves unsuccessful drama (don't care what happens to the characters).

So we'll look for

can't discern personality → don't care what of characters what happens

But we'll take any answer that would allow us to establish that when it comes to BB's plays, audiences don't care about what happens to the characters.

10.

The conclusion of the actor's argument can be properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?

  1. Correct

    An audience that cannot readily

    Why this is right

    We're told that audiences invariably find it difficult to discern any of BB's characters' personalities. This rule says, "well then for BB's plays, an audience will not take interest in any of the characters." And according to the last sentence, when an audience doesn't take interest, it's not a successful drama. Formally, here are the two premises and answer choice combining to yield our conclusion. Premise Answer (A) Premise BB's → can't → don't → unsuccessful plays discern care abt drama personality characters C O N C L U S I O N BB's ---------------------------→ unsuccessful plays drama

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

    61% picked this

  2. A character's personality is determined

    Unrelated to Goal

    If an answer doesn't establish for us that audiences don't care what happens to any of the characters in BB's plays, then it's functionally useless for us. That's the only way we have of proving that a drama is unsuccessful.

    3% picked this

  3. The extent to which a

    Unclear Impact

    This is mostly a reiteration of the final sentence, a premise. It takes what was a conditional on/off relationship between success and audience-caring and turns it into a "volume dial" (the more X, the more Y) relationship. Thanks, but no thanks, (C)! We were fine with the on/off relationship. We just haven't yet established that BB's audiences don't care about any of the characters. In fact we have no idea to what degree BB's audiences care about the characters, so we can't apply the rule in this answer choice to derive how successful his plays are or aren't.

    27% picked this

  4. If the personalities of a

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: actors' discernment Unrelated to Goal If an answer doesn't establish for us that audiences don't care what happens to any of the characters in BB's plays, then it's functionally useless for us. That's the only way we have of proving that a drama is unsuccessful. This answer, uselessly, examines whether or not actors can discern the personalities of the characters they're portraying.

    7% picked this

  5. All plays that, unlike Brecht's

    Empathize With vs. Care What Happens

    This answer is part conditional and part factual. The factual part is telling us that BB's plays have characters with whom audiences do not empathize. So is it the same to say "audiences don't empathize with the characters in BB's plays" as it is to say "audiences don't care what happens to the characters in BB's plays"? To empathize is to understand / share someone else's feelings (usually from having had similar experience). I don't empathize with Batman's feelings -- I don't understand or share the feelings of what it's like to be a billionaire whose parents were killed in front of him, who now secretly fights crime with technologically futuristic weaponry. But I still care what happens to Batman! Since this answer is only addressing whether audiences empathize with BB's characters (and since empathy ≠ care about what happens to you), this answer tells us nothing about whether audiences do / don't care about what happens to the characters in BB's plays.

    3% picked this

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