Logical Reasoning

PT157 · S2 · Q2 The sculptor Barajas died before

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The sculptor Barajas died before she could even begin sculpting the statue called Sonora.

Conclusion

The statue probably looks very much like it would have looked if Barajas had lived to complete it.

Evidence (because)

Sonora was sculpted by Barajas’s assistants, working from three sketches Barajas drew in preparing to create the statue herself.

Evaluate

The evidence in this argument is pretty flimsy, leaving the argument vulnerable to a host of different objections. Do we know if Barajas’s assistants were skilled enough to sculpt Sonora as well as Barajas could herself? Did the sketches provide enough information for the assistants to know how Barajas wanted the completed statue to look? What if Barajas' statues often ended up looking quite different from her sketches?

Goal

A correct answer might bring up any of these possible objections. But correct answers to Weaken questions don't always match our predictions, so we'll need to keep an open mind and think about how each answer would impact the argument.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?

Correct
Ordinarily, Barajas’s ideas for her
Why this is right
If it normally took Barajas dozens of sketches to arrive at her final vision, then we have no reason to think that the three measly sketches the assistants have would really result in the same final product that Barajas would have achieved if she had lived to complete the work herself. We can easily argue that the statue the assistants made probably doesn't resemble what Barajas would have made, since Barajas's usual process was to substantially revise her works as she worked on them. It attacks the assumption that Barajas's finished work would actually resemble those three sketches.
Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
79% picked this
One of the assistants who
Weaker Impact
This answer has some weakening potential but is far less impactful than the correct answer. Naturally, we'd want all the assistants who worked closely with Barajas to help make this statue as close as possible to what Barajas would have made. But this answer just says that one of them can't be involved in the project. There might be a bunch of assistants who did closely work with Barajas who are involved.
3% picked this
Sonora is composed partly of
Weaker Impact
If we're trying to argue that the statue the assistants made probably doesn't look much like what Barajas would have made, we could potentially say, "The assistants used a bunch of materials that Barajas would have never used!" But this answer comes nowhere close to delivering that punch. It's composed partly of materials she didn't frequently use. We'd need to hear something more like "it's composed primarily of materials she never used."
17% picked this
Barajas always worked from sketches
Opposite (if anything)
If anything, this strengthens the argument rather than weakening it. If Barajas always used sketches as her guide, then her assistants' approach of working from sketches mirrors her own process. This makes it more plausible, not less, that the assistants could produce a statue resembling what Barajas would have created.
0% picked this
Barajas never took as long
Irrelevant Distinction
The time required to complete the statue has no clear bearing on whether the finished product resembles what Barajas would have created. Working more slowly has no common sense link to "the result looks different". The assistants might have been more methodical precisely because they were trying to faithfully follow the sketches.
0% picked this

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