Self-study
The simultaneous and apparently independent development in several ancient cultures of a myth of creatures who were half human and half horse parallels the increased use of horses in these cultures. ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that centaurs reflect people’s unconscious fear of horses. She supports this by saying that many cultures use myth to express unconscious thoughts, and centaurs were often portrayed as violent and savage.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author concludes that half-horse, half-humans represent people’s fear of horses because they were shown as violent and savage. But this ignores the alternative explanation that centaurs could represent a fear of humans. After all, we know that horses were traditionally seen as gentle and noble, so why jump to the conclusion that the violence of centaurs represents horses rather than humans?
Also, just because many cultures use myth to express unconscious thoughts doesn’t mean the centaur myth represents unconscious thoughts or fears. It could simply represent the new partnership between humans and horses.
6.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████
a
fails to show ████ ███ ████████ ████████ █████████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ █████
This highlights the assumption that the violence of centaurs represents horses, not humans. But since centaurs are half horse, half human, their violence might actually represent humans. This is even supported by “the nobility and gentleness traditionally ascribed to the horse.”
b
fails to consider ████ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████
The author doesn’t fail to consider this. The claim that centaurs reflect an unconscious fear of horses doesn’t mean that people didn’t still have good reasons for their unconscious fear.
c
confuses the expression ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████
The author argues that the centaur myth was an expression of people’s unconscious fear of horses. She doesn’t talk about the suppression of unconscious thoughts.
d
fails to demonstrate ████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████
The argument says that the centaur myth appeared apparently independently across cultures. But even if the myth was borrowed from one culture by the others, it wouldn’t affect the argument that it represents an unconscious fear of horses.
e
fails to explain ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ████████
The author doesn’t explain why people use myth to express unconscious thoughts, but she doesn’t need to explain it and it wouldn’t affect her argument anyway.