Logical Reasoning

PT144 · S2 · Q24 It has been said that authors who

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It has been said that authors who write in order to give pleasure cannot impart to their readers the truth of their subject matter.

Conclusion

(That claim cannot be true) Authors who write in order to give pleasure can impart the truth of their subject matter.

Evidence

That would mean that popular books by definition are somewhat untruthful, because if a book is selling well, then it's presumably imparting pleasure, and therefore according to this incorrect principle we would know that those authors were not able to impart the truth of their subject matter.

Evaluate

It's fair to say this is in my top 3 least favorite LR problems ever. The argument has so many loose ends and is so incoherent that it's impossible to know what they want you to notice.

There's a typical rebuttal assumption here that has to do with the fact that the author wants to argue via the contrapositive of a counterfactual.

CONCLUSION: Some people say X, but they're wrong. PREMISE: After all if X were true, then Y would be true.

IMPLICIT ASSUMPTION: Y is not true.

So there could have been an answer saying that the author assumes that .

Where this question ultimately ends up going instead is to missing links between term shifts from the conclusion to the evidence.

In the conclusion we're talking about "authors who write in order to give pleasure". Are we told anything about such authors in the evidence?

No, the closest thing to that is [the book] gave people pleasure. The author must be assuming that .

In the conclusion we're talking about "cannot impart the truth of their subject matter". Do we talk about anything like that in the evidence?

No, the closest thing to that is some of what is written in the book is not true. The author must be assuming that .

Goal

Look for an answer establishing a link the author made between ideas or ruling out some idea that would weaken the argument.

24.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

When people choose to read
Out of Scope
Out of Scope: already know Too Strong: generally The author's argument doesn't hinge on any idea like 51% vs. 49% of the time people don't already know when choosing a book whether it'll give them pleasure.
10% picked this
Even when an author writes
Opposite
This would go against the grain of the move the author's argument makes. He goes from talking about authors who intend to give pleasure to talking about books that gave people pleasure. So his interests aren't served by assuming that there is a mismatch sometimes. If we negated this, it would say "when an author writes with the intent of giving pleasure, she always achieves her goal", and that would only strengthen a missing link in this argument.
7% picked this
In many cases, a book's
Out of Scope: concerned with truth
Why would the author need it to be true that in many cases a book's readers are un-concerned about the truth of book's contents? Our author is arguing that author who write to give pleasure can still impart truth to their readers. So this answer feels more like a weakening idea than it does something that would be essential to the author's argument.
8% picked this
Correct
A book will not give
Why this is right
On the face of it, this answer sounds way too strong and expansive to be right, but when Necessary Assumption answers are conditional, we can always look at them in diagrammed form and ask ourselves whether the author ever made this move. not intended by author ? won't give readers to give pleasure pleasure It's good to consider the contrapositive as well, since so many answers are disguised in that form. gives readers ? intended by author pleasure to give pleasure The author DID make this move, since her evidence is talking about books that give people pleasure and her conclusion is talking about authors who wrote in order to (with the intent to) give pleasure. The author must be assuming that when she talks about books that give readers pleasure, she's still talking about books intended by the author to give pleasure. Otherwise, her evidence literally says nothing about authors who write in order to give pleasure.
Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
53% picked this
A book can be popular
Opposite
Our author makes a subsidiary conclusion that if a book is very popular, then one can reasonably conclude that it gave people pleasure. The contrapositive of that would sound like didn't give people pleasure ? not very popular This answer choice is saying that our author assumes that there are times when a book doesn't give pleasure but is still popular. This answer is almost like a counterexample to the link the author is assuming in that last sentence.
22% picked this

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