Self-study
It is often said that beauty is subjective. ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ███████████ █████ ████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███ █████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that beauty is not subjective. This is because earlier cultures’ beauty standards largely align with today’s, demonstrated by the similarity in which works of art are considered most beautiful across eras.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the works of art a culture finds beautiful represent the culture's beauty standards as a whole. The author also assumes that if today’s beauty standards align with those of earlier cultures, both beauty standards are rooted in something objective, rather than aligning by coincidence or because earlier cultures influenced our beauty standards.
15.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Few contemporary artists ████ ████ █████████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███████ █████████
If we assume that contemporary artists produce beautiful art, this means they do so without exposure to the works of earlier cultures which might influence them. Unless there's some indirect influence, this strengthens the argument.
b
The arts held █ ████ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████████
It doesn’t matter how important the arts are to a given culture. The importance of art is irrelevant to whether beauty standards have an objective source.
c
Our own standard ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████
If our standards of beauty today are influenced by older cultures, that explains why the standards align without needing an objective source. Providing an alternative explanation weakens the argument.
d
Much of what ██████ ███ █████████ ████████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████ ██ ████████████ ██████████
This only talks about important artworks today, but importance and beauty can’t be conflated. Like in (B), what art is important doesn't make a difference to where beauty standards come from.
e
In most cultures ███ ██ █████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██████
Ownership isn’t important, because it makes no difference to what is considered beautiful. This doesn't tell us anything about the source of beauty standards, so it's irrelevant.