Self-study
Historian: The revolutionary party has been accused of having many overambitious goals and of having caused great suffering. ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ██ █████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ███ █████████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the revolutionary party was not overambitious and caused NO suffering. This is based on the fact that most of the party’s goals were achieved quickly and that the party didn’t have enough power to cause GREAT suffering.
Identify and Describe Flaw
There are two key assumptions. First, the author assumes that achieving most goals quickly implies that there weren’t many overambitious goals. This overlooks the possibility that there were a lot of goals that the party still didn’t achieve. Second, the author assumes that not being able to cause GREAT suffering implies that the party caused NO suffering. This overlooks the possibility that the party still caused some suffering, even if it wasn’t great.
24.
The reasoning in the historian's ████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████
a
gives mutually inconsistent █████████ ██ ███ ███ ██████████
There’s nothing contradictory about claiming that the party achieved most goals and that it didn’t have enough power to cause great suffering. Both can be true.
b
fails to establish ████ ███ █████████████ █████ ██████ ██ █████████
The author’s premises establish that the party didn’t cause GREAT suffering. But this doesn’t establish what the conclusion asserts — that the party caused NO suffering.
c
fails to establish ████ ███ ██ ███ █████████████ ███████ ███████ ██████████████ ███ ███████ █████
The argument didn’t need to establish anything about the critics of the revolutionary party. The critics’ claims are mentioned purely as context in the first sentence; the argument’s reasoning doesn’t rely on critics’ perceptions of the party.
d
provides no evidence ████ ███ █████████████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ █████████████
The author does provide some evidence that the goals were not overambitious — the party achievedmost of its goals quickly. This evidence doesn’t prove that the party was not overambitious, but it does constitute at least some evidence it wasn’t ambitious.
e
fails to consider █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████████ █████
The argument didn’t need to consider other major criticisms. It focusd on two particular criticisms about being overambitious and causing great suffering and tried to rebut those points. But the argument doesn’t take a position on any other issues.