PT12.S1.Q20 - the new perfume aurora

The 180 Bro_OVO

In real time, I was down between B and D. I chose D because it "felt" correct.

In regards to actual reasoning, I'm assuming D's appeal to authority is illegitimate because something like smell is so subjective and appealing to an expert wouldn't make sense?

I am not certain on B.

Any help would be appreciated.

runiggyrun

The way they make sure D is ironclad is by making Professor Jameson an expert in "the physiology of smell", not in perfumes or smells in general. He is basically an expert in how noses and brains work to detect smells, which definitely doesn't make him any more qualified than the average Joe to judge the quality of perfumes.
B says that you can prefer one thing to another even if you pretty much hate both. I prefer broccoli to asparagus, but I don't exactly like either.
That's not relevant to the argument, because we are given rankings for both Aurora's posse and the professor. I'm sure it would be relevant to some arguments, for instance if you said "I hate broccoli" and I said "I prefer broccoli to asparagus" - you couldn't draw the conclusion that our opinions on broccoli are different.

The 180 Bro_OVO

D makes a LOT more sense now. Thanks!

But I'm still trying to understand your point with B.
Why does the argument giving us preferences for the friends and the professor make B not relevant.

runiggyrun

The simple (and not very helpful) answer would be that B is not relevant because it's not a flaw in this specific argument, and the question asks us to identify a flaw.
Why is it not a flaw? Because even if the author did take B into consideration, it wouldn't change the argument.
The argument says "Aurora &co like this perfume the least of all perfumes. Professor J, an expert, likes it best of all perfumes. Something is wrong with Aurora's nose".
Answer B: yes, but maybe Professor J doesn't like it either. He just likes it better than the others.

So? Comparatively, he still thinks it's the best out there, and Aurora thinks it's the worst. Clearly they are not perceiving the relative quality of smells the same way. If he were truly "THE NOSE", that would make her wrong.

In other words, maybe if you turn the relative scale into an absolute one you can get them to agree that the perfume in discussion is "meh". But that means that they disagree about all the other perfumes - Aurora thinks they are ranging from "meh to spectacular" and professor Jameson thinks they range from "atrocious to meh". Still a big misalignment in their assessment of smells in general.