Intellectual authority is defined as the authority of arguments that prevail by virtue of good reasoning and do not depend on coercion or convention. █ ███████████ ███████ █████████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██████████ ███
Intro to Concepts ·Intellectual v. Institutional Authority
Intellectual authority is founded on good reasoning whereas institutional authority is founded on the coercive power of social institutions.
Author’s Critique of Critics ·Intellectual authority is real and different from institutional authority
Support: Some arguments accepted by institutions are later rejected on intellectual grounds; some arguments rejected by institutions are later recognized on intellectual grounds.
Critics' Rebuttal to Author ·Intellectual authority depends on institutional recognition
E.g., if a composer lingered in obscurity for 20 years and is hence judged to not be a genius, is that an intellectual or institutional judgment? You might say it's intellectual, i.e., a judgment on the merits, i.e., he's just a bad composer. But critics might say, hold on, how do you know 20 years is long enough to recognize merit or lack thereof? Why not 30 years or 70? The length of time is purely an institutional convention. Hence, even what seems like an intellectual judgment is actually an institutional one.
Author's Main Point ·Even if most of legal power is institutional, there is a significant amount of intellectual power as well.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
14.
Based on the passage, the ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████
Question Type
Author’s perspective
Implied
This asks us about the author’s perspective on precedent. Recall that the critics think that precedent is an example of purely institutional authority, while the author thinks that it can allow for intellectual authority, since judges can reconsider, revise, or overrule badly reasoned decisions.
a
It is the ████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███████ █ ██████ ████████████ ██████████
Unsupported— too strong. The author never claims that precedent allows judges to achieve a purely intellectual authority. In fact, he admits that most of the power of legal systems may be institutional; he just argues that precedent still allows for some intellectual authority, since judges can reconsider past decisions. He also never claims that precedent is the only tool that allows judges to practice intellectual authority.
b
It is a ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██████████
Unsupported. Precedent can conflict with the demands of intellectual authority, if judges never reconsider decisions. But precedent can also allow for intellectual authority, since judges can reconsider past decisions.
c
It is a ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████████
Supported. Precedent is a useful tool, but its intellectual authority comes from judges’ ability to reconsider badly reasoned decisions. If judges do not reconsider decisions, then precedent lacks intellectual authority.
d
It is often ██ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ █████████████ ███ ████████████ █████████ ██ ████ ██████████
Anti-supported. The author thinks that the doctrine of precedent does allow judges to reconsider badly reasoned past decisions. He also never suggests that precedent is unreliable.
e
It is an ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██████████
Anti-supported. The author thinks that legal precedent does allow for intellectual authority, since judges can reconsider past decisions. He never suggests that precedent is unreliable or that it should be abandoned.
Difficulty
81% of people who answer get this correct
This is a moderately difficult question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%137
147
75%157
Analysis
Author’s perspective
Implied
Critique or debate
Law
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
2%
155
b
9%
156
c
81%
163
d
6%
155
e
1%
152
Question history
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