Self-study
Filmmaker: Support I use hidden cameras when filming documentaries, because people behave differently when they are aware of being filmed. ████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ █████████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████
Summary
The author concludes that her documentaries are more worthwhile than documentaries in which people speak directly to the camera.
Why?
Because she uses hidden cameras, and the people she films act naturally, unlike the people in documentaries that involve people speaking directly to the camera.
Notable Assumptions
Notice the value judgment in the conclusion – “worthwhile.” Nothing in the premises establish anything about what makes a documentary worthwhile. So, the argument requires a principle that connects the premises to the level of a documentary’s worth. For example:
If a documentary films people who act naturally, and another documentary films people who do not act naturally, then the first documentary is more worthwhile than the second.
23.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
A documentary with ██ ███████ █████ ████ █████████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ██ ███████████
“Legitimate” documentaries? The legitimacy of a documentary is different from its worth. And, the premises do not establish that there are any documentaries with “no purpose other than authentically depicting the behavior of its human subjects.” We do have enough to suggest that one of the purposes of the author’s documentaries is to depict the behavior of its subjects. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only purpose.
b
A documentary can ██ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ████████ ██ █ ███████
(B) doesn’t help establish the worth of one documentary over another.
c
Makers of documentaries ██ ███ ████ █ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ █████
(C) has nothing to do with establishing the worth of one documentary over another. If we added (C) to the arguments, we would still have no idea whether the author’s documentaries are more worthwhile.
d
The more authentically █ ███████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███
(D) isn’t phrased in the conditional form that we predicted, but it captures a similar idea. If we add (D) to the argument, a documentary becomes more worthwhile as it depicts its subjects’ behavior more authentically. This supports the reasoning that a documentary that shows natural behavior – like the author’s documentaries – is more worthwhile than a documentary that doesn’t show natural behavior.
e
Subjects of documentaries ██████ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ █████
(E) presents a rule about what people in documentaries should not try to do. But the argument concerns whether documentaries are more worthwhile or less worthwhile. What people in documentaries should not do has no connection to a conclusion about the worth of a documentary.