Logical Reasoning

PT144 · S3 · Q14 Sharon heard her favorite novelist

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Sharon heard her favorite novelist speak out against a political candidate that Sharon has supported for years.

Situation

Sharon has a favorite novelist (X) and a political candidate she's supported for years (Y).

She heard that X spoke out against (criticized) Y. It made her think less of X, but it didn't change how she thought about the Y.

Evaluate / Goal

Because the paragraph is labeled as a situation, as opposed to an argument / reasoning, we don't need to look for a premise / conclusion breakdown.

We just need a principle that matches this situation — one person you like (the novelist) criticizes someone else you like (the politician). you think less of the critic, but your opinion of the criticized stays the same.

14.

The situation described above conforms most closely to which one of the following principles?

  1. Artists who speak out on

    Out of Scope: most dedicated

    This is a conditional that sounds like this: if you're not one of they won't have any an artist's most ? influence on you when dedicated fans they speak on politics We don't know whether or not Sharon is one of this novelist's most dedicated fans.

    1% picked this

  2. A political statement from an

    Out of Scope: established reputation

    This is a conditional that sounds like this: if artist hasn't established political statement reputation for being ? should not be smart / honest observer considered of politics We have no idea whether this novelist does or doesn't have an established reputation for being honest/smart about politics.

    1% picked this

  3. Artists should limit their public

    Out of Scope: related to arts

    This is a conditional that sounds like this: if it's not somehow ? artist shouldn't make a related to the arts public political statement We don't know whether or not the novelist's political statement was / wasn't somehow related to the arts (maybe the novelist was yelling at a politician who wanted to cut funding for the National Endowment of the Arts).

    2% picked this

  4. Correct

    Someone who hears testimony that

    Why this is right

    This is a conditional that sounds like this: if you hear testimony you'll entertain doubts that goes against ? about the source of a long-standing opinion testimony, not your of yours long-standing opinion This, we can match up, even though it's still a bit of a stretch. Sharon had a long-standing opinion: Politician Y is good She heard testimony from her favorite novelist contradicting it: Politician Y sucks She entertained doubts about the novelist (her estimation declined), but not doubts about her original opinion. She continued to think Politician Y is good (her estimation did not change). I don't love saying that this novelist speaking out against a candidate Sharon likes qualifies well as "testimony contradicting a long-standing opinion", but in the end this answer can be better matched than any other, and that's what counts.

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

    86% picked this

  5. People are far less likely

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: new vs. many years This would make perfect sense if we knew that Sharon's support of the candidate started earlier than when this novelist because her favorite. But we have no idea. We don't know how old Sharon is. She might have loved this novelist since high school and only started supporting this political candidate in the past decade.

    11% picked this

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