Self-study
City councilperson: Many city residents oppose the city art commission's proposed purchase of an unusual stone edifice, on the grounds that art critics are divided over whether the edifice really qualifies as art. ███ █ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████████ █████ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ████
Summary
The councilperson concludes that the edifice qualifies as art. She supports this by defining the purpose of art and demonstrating that the edifice fulfills that purpose.
Missing Connection
The conclusion is that the edifice qualifies as art. The councilperson successfully supports the idea that the edifice fulfills the purpose of art, but why does this mean that the edifice qualifies as art? We need to know that if something fulfills the purpose of art, then it also qualifies as art.
12.
Which one of the following, ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████████ ████████ ██ ██ ████████ █████████
a
Nothing qualifies as ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ████████
Phrased another way, (A) is “If something qualifies as art, then it causes debate among experts.” But this only supports a conclusion about causing debate or (through contrapositive) that something does not qualify as art. We need to conclude that something is art.
b
If an object ██████ ██████ █████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ █████████ ██ ████
We do not want uncertainty. We are not trying to conclude that experts can’t be certain whether the edifice is art. We need to conclude that the edifice is art.
c
The purchase of ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ████████
This is not an argument about whether or not the edifice should be purchased. The argument is about why the edifice qualifies as art.
d
Any object that ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████
The argument established that the edifice fulfills the purpose of art. If (D) is true, then that fulfillment means that the edifice qualifies as art.
e
The city art ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████
Similar to (C), we are not trying to conclude anything about purchasing the edifice. Additionally, like (A), we would need to invoke “qualifies as art” as sufficient condition, but that is the very thing we are trying to prove.