Principle: Support An author of an article that has appeared in a magazine should be allowed to respond in that magazine to harsh criticism of the article if the criticism was published in the same magazine, or, alternatively, if the criticism was published in another magazine and is unfair.
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This is a Sufficient Assumption question, because we're asked for an answer that "justifies" the application of the principle. Let's start first by understanding the principle.
That turns out to be a tough task. The principle has so many different parts, and it's not clear just how many of the details of the principle will really matter in how it's applied. Ultimately, we may need to come back after reading the application to get a better handle on what we want to pay attention to in the principle. Once we do that, we should come away with the following understanding:
When should the author of an article that appeared in a magazine be allowed to respond in that magazine to harsh criticism of that article?
Path 1:
- The criticism was published in the same magazine in which the article appeared
Path 2:
- The criticism was published in a different magazine, AND
- The criticism is unfair
The application concludes that McFinton should be allowed to publish a response in Speculator's Digest to Wallace's most recent article. Why? Because that article is harshly critical of McFinton's essay on self-deception.
Let's examine each potential path to our conclusion.
Path 1: Was Wallace's article published in the same magazine as the one McFinton's essay appeared in? We don't know. We're not told anything about where either the article or the essay is published. So, to go down Path 1, we want to know that both the article and the essay were published in the Speculator's Digest. If we learn this information, we can conclude that McFinton should be allowed to publish a response in the Speculator's Digest.
Path 2: We don't know where the article or essay were published. And, we don't know whether Wallace's criticism was unfair. So, to go down Path 2, we want to know (1) Wallace's criticism was published somewhere besides Speculator's Digest, (2) McFinton's essay was published in Speculator's Digest, and (3) that Wallace's criticism was unfair.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████████ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████
McFinton's essay on ██████████████ ████████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████ ██████████
This doesn't tell us where Wallace's article was published. Without that knowledge, we don't know whether we have enough to go down either of the paths that would get us to the conclusion.
Wallace's most recent ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████ ██████████
This doesn't tell us where McFinton's essay was published. Without that knowledge, we don't know whether McFinton should be allowed to publish a response in Speculator's Digest. Remember, the principle concerns when an author should be allowed to respond
McFinton's essay on ██████████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████████ ███████ █████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ █ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██████████
If Wallace's article was published in "other" magazines besides Speculator's Digest, then it looks like (C) is trying to use Path 2. But to go down Path 2, we would also want to know that Wallace's criticism was unfair. (C) doesn't tell us the criticism was unfair.
Both McFinton's essay ██ ██████████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██ ████████████ ███████
This gives us enough information to go down Path 1. Since both the article and the essay are published in the same magazine, Speculator's Digest, McFinton would be allowed to respond to Wallace's article in the Speculator's Digest.
Wallace's most recent ███████ ████████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██ ███████████████
This doesn't tell us where McFinton's essay was published. Without that knowledge, we don't know whether McFinton should be allowed to publish a response in Speculator's Digest. Remember, the principle concerns when an author should be allowed to respond
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