Self-paced
M: The Greek alphabet must have been invented by some individual who knew the Phoenician writing system and who wanted to have some way of recording Homeric epics and thereby preserving expressions of a highly developed tradition of oral poetry.
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Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
P concludes that M is incorrect—that the Greek alphabet was not invented by someone who knew the Phoenician writing system and wanted to record Homer’s stories. P explains that writing down those stories would have been pointless for such an individual, who would already need to know those stories without writing them down. Also, no one else would know the newly-invented alphabet and be able to read the stories.
P argues that M’s hypothesis is not convincing because there would be no point for someone to write down a story that they already know, in a new alphabet. However, this is a flawed argument: P overlooks several possible explanations. For example, what if the writer is worried about forgetting the story later, or plans to teach the new alphabet to others?
4.
P's argument is vulnerable to █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
It fails to ███████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████ █████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ███ ███ █████ █████████
P’s argument doesn’t rely on the claim that the Phoenician alphabet alone is the basis for the Greek alphabet. P isn’t making any claims at all about the basis for the Greek alphabet.
b
It incorrectly assumes ████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ █ ███████ █████
P simply doesn’t claim, nor rely on an assumption, that the first text written in Greek was a Homeric poem.
c
It confuses the ████████████ ███ █ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ █ ███████ █████████
P doesn’t make any claims about the requirements of an oral tradition compared to those of a written language.
d
It attempts to ███████████ ███ █████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ██ █████████
P doesn’t attempt to demonstrate the truth of a hypothesis at all, but rather, attempts to cast doubt on the truth of M’s hypothesis.
e
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ███████
P claims that inventing an alphabet to write down Homeric stories would have been pointless partially because no one could have read the stories in a new alphabet. This overlooks the possibility that the writer wanted to teach others the alphabet.