Self-study
Curator: Critics have rightly claimed that removing the centuries-old grime from the frescoes of Michelangelo will expose them to acids formed by the combination of water vapor in human breath with pollutants in the air. ███████████████ ████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██████ █████████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ █████████████
Summary
Despite the damage it will cause, Michelangelo’s paintings should be cleaned. Why? Cleaning them would allow people to see the paintings in their original condition.
Notable Assumptions
The author’s only support for cleaning the paintings is that this would allow them to be seen in their original condition. She has not established why this is important or why this makes damaging the paintings okay, so she is assuming these ideas are linked. We need a rule that establishes this link, which gives us a strong prediction:
Damaging the paintings is okay if it allows people to see them in their original condition.
1.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████████
a
The decision as ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████████ █████████ ██████
Wrong trigger and wrong conclusion. (A) wants us to assume the paintings are judged as aesthetically great, but we don’t have this information. And even if they are deemed worthy of restoration, (A) doesn’t tell us if it is acceptable to damage them in the process.
b
An artwork possesses █████████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███
(B) leads to the wrong conclusion. This would only help us prove that an artwork doesn’t have aesthetic value, which is irrelevant to the argument.
c
It is acceptable ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████
The premises state that restoring the artwork would allow people to see it in its original form. (C) tells us that this is a justifiable reason to damage the artwork, proving the conclusion.
d
It is right ██ █████ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███████
Wrong trigger and wrong conclusion. The premises don’t tell us if the restoration will make the artwork accessible to large numbers of people. We also don’t care about justifying the cost of the restoration, only whether or not it’s okay to damage it in the process.
e
A picture that ███ ██████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ █ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████
(E) leads to the wrong conclusion. We don’t want to prove that the paintings are no longer the same works of art. We want to prove it’s okay to damage them during the restoration process.