Self-study
It has been said that authors who write in order to give pleasure cannot impart to their readers the truth of their subject matter. ████ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ██ █████ ███ █████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ██ █ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████
Summary
The author concludes that writers who write for the PURPOSE (”in order to”) of giving pleasure CAN impart truth to their readers.
The author tries to support this conclusion by showing that if this were not true, then that would lead to an absurd belief. To the author, if writers who write for the PURPOSE of giving pleasure couldn’t impart truth, then we’d be able to look at the sales figures of popular books, which we can assume gave people pleasure, and determine that some of what the books contain is false.
The author doesn’t complete the argument explicitly, but in the author’s mind, it’s obviously wrong to think we can determine that what a book says is false simply based on sales figures. This is why the author believes it can’t be true that writers who write for the purpose of giving pleasure cannot impart truth to their readers.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that we can’t determine the truth of a book simply from its sales figures. (This is an assumption needed to complete the reasoning by absurdity. The author’s trying to show that if a certain belief were true, that would lead to a certain outcome that’s false. Here, the author needs to assume that that outcome actually is false.)
The author also assumes that if a book gave people pleasure, then the author of the book had the PURPOSE of giving people pleasure. (You can find this assumption from noticing that the author’s premises refer only to books that “gave people pleasure,” whereas the conclusion concerns “authors who write in order to give pleasure.”)
24.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
When people choose ██ ████ █ █████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █████████
People’s knowledge of the potential pleasure from a book is irrelevant. The argument concerns the author’s intentions, not what readers are aware of.
b
Even when an ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████
Not necessary, because even if an author who writes with the goal of giving people pleasure is always successful in giving pleasure, that doesn’t undermine the reasoning. What matters is whether a book that gives pleasure must have been intended to give pleasure; not whether people who intend to give pleasure always succeed in giving pleasure.
c
In many cases, █ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████
Not necessary, because what readers are concerned with is irrelevant. The argument concerns the author’s intentions, not what readers care about.
d
A book will ███ ████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███████
Necessary, because this describes the author’s jump from books that “gave people pleasure” to a conclusion about “authors who write in order to give pleasure.” If (D) were not true — if a book can give readers pleasure even if it wasn’t intended to give pleasure — then the author’s premises are not relevant to proving a claim concerning the author’s intent.
e
A book can ██ ███████ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ █████████
Not necessary, because the author actually wants to draw a connection between popularity and giving people pleasure. The author thinks if a book is very popular, we can reasonably conclude that it gave people pleasure. But if, as (E) states, a book can be popular for reasons other than giving pleasure, that undermines the author’s assumed connection between popularity and giving people pleasure.