Self-study
Curator: Since ancient times, the fine arts were developed and sustained with the aid of large subsidies from the aristocracies and religious institutions that were the public sectors of their day; Support it is doubtful that the arts would have survived without these subsidies. ████████ ████████████ █████████ ██████ ███████ █████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████████ ██ █████████ █████████████ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ████████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████
Summary
Government subsidies are necessary for the fine arts. Why? Because in the past, subsidies from aristocrats and religious sources were important for sustaining the fine arts. And in the present, societies should be stewards of cultural heritage without turning to aristocrats or religious sources for help.
Notable Assumptions
The curator makes three big assumptions. First, he leans on an analogy: the arts relied on subsidies in the past, so the arts need subsidies in the present. For his analogy to hold, he must assume that what used to be true of funding needs for the arts is similarly true today.
Next, he says why anyone should be obliged to provide those subsidies: because societies should be stewards of cultural heritage. But he doesn’t explain how being “stewards of cultural heritage” has anything to do with supporting the arts. He must assume that acting as stewards necessarily involves supporting the arts.
Lastly, he assumes that without assistance from aristocracies and religious institutions, any effort by society to maintain the arts must include government subsidies. (If there were other options, then why conclude it must fall to governments specifically?)
16.
The curator's argument depends on ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
The fine arts █████ ██ ████ ██████ █████████ ███ ██ ████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ████████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████
The argument is about government obligations in the present. The curator doesn’t need to assume that more subsidies would have been helpful in the past to conclude that governments must provide subsidies in the present.
b
If contemporary governments ████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████████████
Too strong. The conclusion is that governments must help support the arts, not that they must be the only source of support. Even if government and private support are both necessary to sustain the arts, the argument still stands.
c
In contemporary societies, █████████████ ███ █████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ████ █████
Irrelevant. The premises already establish that contemporary societies shouldn’t be turning to aristocracies and religious institutions to help the arts. So whether or not those sources would help the arts has no impact on the argument.
d
Serving as stewards ██ ████████ ████████ ████████ ████ ████████████ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ █████
The only support for why contemporary societies should worry about financing the fine arts is an obligation to be stewards of cultural heritage. The curator must assume that this obligation involves maintaining the fine arts. Otherwise, the argument gives no reason for taking action to help the arts.
e
Maintenance, advancement, and ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██████████
Too strong. In arguing that subsidies are required in the present era, the curator relies on the fact that analogous subsidies were important in some past eras. But there’s no need to assume that such subsidies are required across the entirety of time.