Self-study
The authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey has long been debated. ████ ███████████ ████████ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ██ ████████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████
Summary
We should accept the traditional idea that Homer primarily authored both the Iliad and the Odyssey, even though there’s evidence both for and against his authorship. Why? Because there’s no overwhelming evidence on either side.
Notable Assumptions
The argument assumes that, without conclusive evidence, we should err on the side of accepting tradition. That’s the only way to get from the premise that the evidence is inconclusive to the conclusion that we should accept the traditional account. We need to find a principle that reflects the argument’s assumption.
14.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ █████████████ ██████
a
If there is ██ ████████████ ████████ ███ ██ ███████ █ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████████ ██ ██ ███ ██████
This takes us to the wrong conclusion. The argument says we should accept the traditional explanation, not that we should suspend judgment.
b
If a hypothesis ████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████████████ █████████
The hypothesis that Homer didn’t write the Iliad and the Odyssey goes against tradition, and the evidence is not overwhelming, so according to this principle we should reject that hypothesis—thus accepting tradition instead. This matches the argument’s assumption.
c
If there is ██ ████████████ ████████ ███ ██ ███████ █ ███████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███
This just doesn’t make sense, because it would equally support the conclusion that Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the conclusion that he didn’t. That’s not what the argument is saying.
d
One should accept ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██████████████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███████████
The argument never mentions nontraditional evidence, so this principle wouldn’t apply. And even if it did, that’s necessary, not sufficient—it would only say that we can accept the authority of tradition, not that we should.
e
One should defer ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███
There are not two hypotheses mentioned in the argument that conflict with tradition, so this principle doesn’t match the argument’s reasoning.