Self-study
Eighteenth-century moralist: Conclusion You should never make an effort to acquire expensive new tastes, since Support they are a drain on your purse and in the course of acquiring them you may expose yourself to sensations that are obnoxious to you. ████████████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███████ █████ ████████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that you should never make an effort to acquire expensive new tastes. This is based on the fact that those tastes are expensive, and in acquiring those tastes, you might be exposed to stuff that annoys you. In addition, the amount of effort required to acquire these tastes shows they’re unnecessary.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The premises identify several negative aspects about acquiring expensive new tastes. But the author ignores potential benefits of acquiring those tastes. Those benefits might outweigh the costs and might suggest acquiring new tastes is OK to do.
14.
The moralist's reasoning is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
draws a conclusion ████ ██████ ████████ █ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ██████████
(A) describes circular reasoning. The conclusion does not restate one of the premises. The conclusion is a recommendation not to acquire expensive new tastes; none of the premises expresses this same idea.
b
takes for granted ████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████████████
The author does not assume that acquiring expensive tastes will lead to irresponsibility. Rather, the tastes will act as a “drain” on one’s purse. This just means the tastes will cost a lot; the tastes do not have to lead to irresponsibility.
c
uses the inherently █████ ████ ████████████ ███████ █████████ █ ██████████ ██ ████ ████
Failure to define a term is not a flaw. We can simply use the dictionary definition of “sensations” — feelings or perceptions.
d
mistakes a cause ██ ███████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████
The argument’s flaw isn’t related to a mistaken causal inference. The premises describe certain effects of acquiring expensive new tastes. But the author never confuses these for what causes people to acquire these tastes.
e
rejects trying to ███████ █ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ ██
The author rejects trying to acquire expensive new tastes because of certain costs to doing so, without considering the benefits from acquiring those tastes. Maybe the benefits could outweigh the costs, which would suggest acquiring the tastes is something one should do.