LSAT 149 – Section 3 – Question 15

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PT149 S3 Q15
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
A
23%
160
B
3%
159
C
19%
160
D
35%
167
E
20%
162
160
169
179
+Hardest 147.456 +SubsectionMedium

There is a popular view among literary critics that a poem can never be accurately paraphrased because a poem is itself the only accurate expression of its meaning. But these same critics hold that their own paraphrases of particular poems are accurate. Thus, their view that poetry cannot be accurately paraphrased is false.

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that the view that poetry cannot be accurately paraphrased is false. This is based on the fact that certain critics who hold that view also hold another view that their own paraphrases of some poems are accurate.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The author points out that the critics who believe a poem cannot be accurately paraphrased hold a contradictory view — that some of their own paraphrases of poems are accurate. But we don’t know which of these views is true, if any. The author assumes that the critics’ own paraphrases of poems are accurate. But it’s possible that the paraphrases are not accurate and that the critics’ view that poems can’t be accurately paraphrased is true. We don’t know which of the critics’ beliefs is true.

A
presupposes the falsity of the view that it sets out to refute
The author does not presuppose, on the way to reaching her conclusion, that the view poems can’t be accurately paraphrased is false. Rather, the author assumes that the critics have accurately paraphrased poems, which, if true, would show that poems can be accurately paraphrased.
B
takes for granted that the main purpose of poems is to convey information rather than express feelings
The author’s reasoning doesn’t relate to the purpose of poems. The issue is whether poems can accurately be paraphrased. Why poems are written or why they are read has no bearing on the argument.
C
takes for granted that a paraphrase of a poem cannot be useful to its readers unless it accurately expresses a poem’s meaning
The author’s reasoning doesn’t relate to the usefulness of a paraphrase. The issue is whether poems can be accurately paraphrased. Whether this paraphrasing is ever useful to a reader has no bearing on the argument.
D
provides no justification for favoring one of the literary critics’ beliefs over the other
The author gave no reason for favoring the view that the critics’ paraphrases are accurate. The author simply assumes that this view is true. This overlooks that the contradictory view could be the one that is true; perhaps poems can’t be paraphrased accurately.
E
provides no justification for following one particular definition of “paraphrase”
It’s not clear that the author is using any definition of “paraphrase” other than the dictionary definition. And it’s not flawed to use the dictionary definition of a word, unless we have some reason to use a different definition.

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