Self-study
Support A survey of historians shows that most believe written texts to be the best source for historical understanding. ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ █████████ █████████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██████████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The argument concludes that the surveyed historians neglect many valuable sources of historical knowledge, like painting, architecture, music, dance, and the culinary arts because the survey shows most of the historians believe written texts are the best source for historical understanding.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The argument reasons that since most of the historians in the survey believe written texts are the best source for historical understanding, they neglect other important repositories of historical knowledge. However, the argument is flawed because it takes for granted that the historians disregard sources they don’t consider to be the best for historical understanding.
The argument creates a false binary; just because most of the historians don’t consider sources like paintings and architecture to be the best, that doesn’t mean they neglect them.
15.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ ████
a
there are no █████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████████ █████ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ███ ████
The argument doesn’t assert or imply this. It simply argues that most of the surveyed historians neglect many important repositories of historical knowledge aside from written texts.
b
painting, architecture, music, ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████████
The argument isn’t concerned with the worth of these sources outside of their historical value. It only discusses the value of these sources for historians.
c
there are no ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████
The argument takes this for granted. Though most of the surveyed historians don’t consider other sources than written texts to be the best for historical understanding, that doesn’t mean they neglect all other sources. They may utilize some sources they don’t consider best.
d
something other than ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ██████████ █████████████
The argument doesn’t take this for granted. It only states that the majority of the surveyed historians believe written texts to be the best source for historical understanding.
e
the other sources ███ ██████████ █████████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ █████████
We don’t know that the argument assumes this. The argument doesn’t put forth a belief about the value of these sources. It only argues that the majority of the surveyed historians neglect these sources.