PT94.S4.Q14 - Science writer: Scientists often accept

jbantony

I figured since there is no explanation video on this one, I'd offer my two cents. Please feel free to respond if my explanation is lacking anything or if you have a better one.

So the correct AC is B and here is why. The stimulus tells us that essentially that scientists relying on social reasons like prestige is not actually a bad thing when they are accepting arguments because social reasons are used to influence every human endeavor. The reason why this is the flaw is because it essentially relies on the fact that this justification is used so often as a valid reason to justify this claim. We know this because social reasons are stated to influence every human behavior, highlighting the frequency of use. The principle behind this argument is "if a justification is used frequently then the justification is valid. But obviously this is not true, just because a justification is used frequently it doesn't mean it is at all a valid way of supporting the argument. I mean we can even use real life examples to really highlight how wrong this claim is. Human emotions also influence every human endeavor, does that mean scientists are justified in accepting scientific arguments based on human emotions and is it right that doing so isn't detrimental? Of course not, doing so would lead to so many biases and flawed groundless conclusions.

I'll also disprove C because it seems to be a popular AC. The reason why this is not the correct AC is because it is not the flaw. This AC is saying that the argument does not consider the fact that these scientists in addition to relying on social reasons also consider relevant evidence when accepting these claims. This actually sounds like it is strengthening the argument. Now we have evidence that these scientists are not just blindly accepting arguments based on social reasons and that there is actually some actual definitive evidence behind these justifications.

This is how I explained this question to myself, I'm curious to know your thoughts.

mrmotter

Thanks for this explanation, that's very helpful.