Self-study
Economist: Some sociologists argue that because capitalism intrinsically involves competition, it weakens the ties between the people of a community. ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ █████ █████████████ █████ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████ █████
Summary
Modern capitalism requires large businesses, which means that it promotes communal ties.
Notable Assumptions
There is little explicit support within the argument’s premises for the conclusion that modern capitalism promotes communal ties. Instead, there is only a statement that there are larger corporations present, without an explicit reason for why that matters. There is thus some missing link being assumed that explains why the larger corporations present in modern capitalism work, on the whole, to promote communal ties.
2.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ████████
a
Few economic systems ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ███████ █████████
Even if other systems were more successful than modern capitalism, that wouldn’t mean that modern capitalism couldn’t do more to promote than to weaken communal ties.
b
Modern capitalism is ████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ██████ ████████ ████ ███████ ███████
The purpose of modern capitalism is largely irrelevant to the argument, and, if anything, this would undermine the argument by suggesting that modern capitalism doesn’t promote communal ties.
c
Corporations that compete ████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████████
The fact that corporations generally develop some ties with each other is not necessary to help the argument get to the claim that, on a general level, the promotion of communal ties of any number of forms outweighs how modern capitalism may undermine communal ties.
d
Having large corporations ██ █ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████
This provides an explicit statement of the assumption tying the premises to the conclusion. If this were negated, and large corporations didn’t promote the strength of communal ties, there would be no reason to accept the conclusion that modern capitalism promotes communal ties.
e
An economic system ████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ ████████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████████ ████ ███ ████ █████
The argument is not concerned with the respective economic successes of different systems.