Intellectual authority is defined as the authority of arguments that prevail by virtue of good reasoning and do not depend on coercion or convention. █ ███████████ ███████ █████████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██████████ ███
Intro to Concepts ·Intellectual v. Institutional Authority
Intellectual authority is founded on good reasoning whereas institutional authority is founded on the coercive power of social institutions.
Author’s Critique of Critics ·Intellectual authority is real and different from institutional authority
Support: Some arguments accepted by institutions are later rejected on intellectual grounds; some arguments rejected by institutions are later recognized on intellectual grounds.
Critics' Rebuttal to Author ·Intellectual authority depends on institutional recognition
E.g., if a composer lingered in obscurity for 20 years and is hence judged to not be a genius, is that an intellectual or institutional judgment? You might say it's intellectual, i.e., a judgment on the merits, i.e., he's just a bad composer. But critics might say, hold on, how do you know 20 years is long enough to recognize merit or lack thereof? Why not 30 years or 70? The length of time is purely an institutional convention. Hence, even what seems like an intellectual judgment is actually an institutional one.
Author's Main Point ·Even if most of legal power is institutional, there is a significant amount of intellectual power as well.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
11.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ███████ ███████ █ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████████████ ██████████
Question Type
WSE
The author argues that legal systems contain a significant degree of intellectual authority in P4. As support, he says that judges can reconsider, revise, or overrule badly reasoned precedential decisions. The correct answer must undermine this reasoning.
This doesn’t challenge the claim that legal systems have intellectual authority. (A) just tells us that some judges make badly reasoned decisions, but it doesn’t say anything about whether legal systems revise those decisions later. If they do, then they are practicing intellectual authority.
This doesn’t challenge the claim that legal systems have intellectual authority. (B) just tells us that some legal systems produce more badly reasoned judicial decisions than others. But it doesn’t say anything about whether legal systems revise those decisions later. If they do, then they are practicing intellectual authority.
This doesn’t challenge the claim that legal systems have intellectual authority. Even if many socially inappropriate legal decisions are thrown out merely because of citizens’ opposition, there might also be many decisions that are thrown out because of judges’ well-reasoned reconsideration. In the second case, judges are practicing intellectual authority.
This doesn’t challenge the claim that legal systems have intellectual authority. (D) just tells us that some legal systems reconsider and revise previous judicial decisions more than others, perhaps because there are more badly reasoned decisions in these systems. Whatever the reason, the legal systems described in (D) are still practicing intellectual authority.
In P4, the author claims that legal systems contain intellectual authority, since judges can reconsider badly reasoned decisions. He assumes that just because judges can do this, they actually do. (E) points out this assumption, effectively undermining his reasoning and challenging his claim. If judges do not rectify badly reasoned decisions, then they aren’t practicing intellectual authority.
Difficulty
76% of people who answer get this correct
This is a moderately difficult question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%137
149
75%160
Analysis
WSE
Critique or debate
Law
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
6%
156
b
3%
153
c
12%
159
d
4%
153
e
76%
164
Question history
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