Self-study
Monica: The sculpture commissioned for our town plaza has been scorned by the public ever since it went up. ███ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ████████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ███
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Speaker 1 Summary
Monica believes that the sculpture’s lack of popularity isn’t a good reason to remove the sculpture. Why not? Because the public is ignorant about contemporary art, and so lack of popularity tells us nothing about its artistic merit. For Monica, any reason to remove the sculpture must be related to its artistic merit.
Speaker 2 Summary
Hector disagrees; he says that if people don’t like the sculpture, then it should be removed. Why? Because the sculpture should benefit the public, and popular opinion is the only way to know whether people think the sculpture benefits them.
Objective
We need a principle that Monica and Hector disagree on. They disagree about the rationale for removing a sculpture. Monica thinks it’s necessary to consider artistic merit. Hector thinks artistic merit doesn’t matter if the public believes the sculpture is of no benefit.
24.
Monica's and Hector's statements commit ████ ██ ███████████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
Public opinion of █ ████ ██ ███ ██ ██ █████████ █████████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██████
Monica’s opinion is unclear. She disregards public opinion in this case because the townspeople are ignorant about contemporary art, but she doesn’t suggest that public opinion never matters. Meanwhile, Hector says she may be right, so he doesn’t disagree with her.
b
Works of art ████████████ ███ ██████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████
Neither has an opinion. Monica never considers public benefit, and Hector doesn’t draw any connection between artistic merit and public benefit.
c
The only reason ███ ████████ █ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███ █ ██████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ █████
Hector’s opinion is unclear. He believes that this is a sufficient reason for removing a work of art, but he doesn’t suggest that it’s the only reason.
d
The sculpture cannot ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████ ██████
Neither has an opinion. Monica never considers public benefit, and Hector doesn’t draw any connection between artistic merit and public benefit.
e
In determining whether ███ █████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ██████████████
Monica agrees, Hector disagrees. Monica suggests that artistic merit is key—if there’s not an issue with the sculpture’s merit, there’s no reason to remove it. Hector says that poor public opinion is enough reason to remove the statue, regardless of artistic merit.