Powerscore Question - Art Historian

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by gilliamwibson » Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:51 am
Ok, please anyone tell me if the conclusion "So, since it is clear that art is often shocking, we should not hesitate to use public
funds to support works of art that many people find shocking" doesn't mean "We should support shocking art because it is clear that it sometimes can be shocking" this doesn't make any sense.
And phirozz, if I were operating by memorizing I wouldn't be this much confused.

The only closest expanation is of Testluv's where he mentions that art as a whole that should be funded also covers the shocking art ok but again.

Negating the choice B does weaken the conclusion. If the creators of shocking art were not funded then the deduction made thereby would render only contradictory.

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by jpjp » Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:13 am
The conclusion reads to me that they should publically fund shocking art because it is still art. This assumes that art as a whole is publically funded.

B does not weaken the conclusion because whether or not they were funded has no bearing on if they should fund in the future. You can still argue that tehy weren't funded in the past but that does not change the argument that they should now.

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by vineetbatra » Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:08 pm
Testluv wrote:
Well, since shocking art is a subset of all art, clearly the argument falls apart. Thus, choice D is an assumption the art historan's argument requires in order for its conclusion to be properly drawn. (I think this is what Phirozz meant, and Phirozz' reasoning is correct).

On the other hand, if you deny any of the other choices (including choice B), the argument remains unaffeced.
Amazing explanation Testluv. Thanks a lot for the response.

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by Testluv » Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:08 pm
This:
Ok, please anyone tell me if the conclusion "So, since it is clear that art is often shocking, we should not hesitate to use public
funds to support works of art that many people find shocking" doesn't mean "We should support shocking art because it is clear that it sometimes can be shocking" this doesn't make any sense.
isn't a great paraphrase because it isn't clear how the evidence supports the conclusion.

A better paraphrase is the one in my original post:

"Because shocking art can be great, we should use public funds to support shocking art."

Does denying choice B have any impact on this paraphrased version? How about denying choice D?....this is why, in my original post, I emphasized the importance of using keywords and paraphrasing!

____

Negating the choice B does weaken the conclusion. If the creators of shocking art were not funded then the deduction made thereby would render only contradictory.
You have misunderstood what role Stravinsky and Manet play in the argument. (Do eithr of those artists appear in the paraphrased version?) ...Study my original post!
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by kashefian » Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:03 pm
We can use the Kaplan denial test to prove that the argument depends on choice D:

If public funds should NOT support art, what happens to the argument that we should use public funds to support shocking art?

Well, since shocking art is a subset of all art, clearly the argument falls apart. Thus, choice D is an assumption the art historan's argument requires in order for its conclusion to be properly drawn. (I think this is what Phirozz meant, and Phirozz' reasoning is correct).

On the other hand, if you deny any of the other choices (including choice B), the argument remains unaffeced.
I put answer choice A under denial test: most art is not shocking. OK! if most art is not shocking then why spend public funds on those few works of art which are shocking (please pay attention that the whole conclusion rests on the facts that works of art are often shocking.)

Please explain why answer choice A is wrong?

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by Testluv » Tue Nov 16, 2010 10:27 am
kashefian wrote:
We can use the Kaplan denial test to prove that the argument depends on choice D:

If public funds should NOT support art, what happens to the argument that we should use public funds to support shocking art?

Well, since shocking art is a subset of all art, clearly the argument falls apart. Thus, choice D is an assumption the art historan's argument requires in order for its conclusion to be properly drawn. (I think this is what Phirozz meant, and Phirozz' reasoning is correct).

On the other hand, if you deny any of the other choices (including choice B), the argument remains unaffeced.
I put answer choice A under denial test: most art is not shocking. OK! if most art is not shocking then why spend public funds on those few works of art which are shocking (please pay attention that the whole conclusion rests on the facts that works of art are often shocking.)

Please explain why answer choice A is wrong?
We actually don't care what fraction of all art is shocking; the author's argument stands regardless. So, let's say most art is not shocking. Well, the author will maintain that those artworks that are shocking (few though they may be) should be supported by public funds. Do you notice that when we deny choice D, the argument cannot logically stand up? This doesn't happen when we deny choice A.

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Hello, I guess this treat has been inactive for a while,,, I have used the Assumption Negation Technique for all Assumption questions and I feel that it works well (please suggest if this method is appropiate) ,,, but I really do not understand how the argument does not fall apart when we negate answer choice (E).

Art historian: Great works of art have often elicited outrage when first presented; in Europe, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring prompted a riot, and Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe elicited outrage
and derision. So, since it is clear that art is often shocking, we should not hesitate to use public
funds to support works of art that many people find shocking.

Which one of the following is an assumption that the art historian's argument requires in order for its
conclusion to be properly drawn?

(A) Most art is shocking.
(B) Stravinsky and Manet received public funding for their art.
(C) Art used to be more shocking than it currently is.
(D) Public funds should support art.
(E) Anything that shocks is art.

Negating this, could be something like this: Anything that shocks is NOT art

The conclusion of the argument is: we should not hesitate to use public funds to support works of art that many people find shocking.

The explanation that the Powerscore CR Bible gives is that for the autor to say that art is shocking and therefore art should be publicly funded, the author must assume that art is worthy of public support. So the best choice according to Powerscore is (D), since it is the only answ choice that deals directly with the conclusion and links the new elements.. ("public funds" did not appear before the conclusion...)

I do understand that negating answer choice (D) hurts the conclusion, but negating answer choice (E) does not have a broader effect?

The argument says: [i]So, since it is clear that art is often shocking[/i] If we say that anything that shocks is NOT art, doesn't have an effect on the on the whole argument? In that way we are saying that art is never shocking, therefore the conclusion lost sense...

Please your comments, I'm really confused about this one!

Thanks in advance.

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by eagleeye » Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:08 pm
[email protected] wrote:Hello, I guess this treat has been inactive for a while,,, I have used the Assumption Negation Technique for all Assumption questions and I feel that it works well (please suggest if this method is appropiate) ,,, but I really do not understand how the argument does not fall apart when we negate answer choice (E).

Art historian: Great works of art have often elicited outrage when first presented; in Europe, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring prompted a riot, and Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe elicited outrage
and derision. So, since it is clear that art is often shocking, we should not hesitate to use public
funds to support works of art that many people find shocking.

Which one of the following is an assumption that the art historian's argument requires in order for its
conclusion to be properly drawn?

(A) Most art is shocking.
(B) Stravinsky and Manet received public funding for their art.
(C) Art used to be more shocking than it currently is.
(D) Public funds should support art.
(E) Anything that shocks is art.

Negating this, could be something like this: Anything that shocks is NOT art

The conclusion of the argument is: we should not hesitate to use public funds to support works of art that many people find shocking.

The explanation that the Powerscore CR Bible gives is that for the autor to say that art is shocking and therefore art should be publicly funded, the author must assume that art is worthy of public support. So the best choice according to Powerscore is (D), since it is the only answ choice that deals directly with the conclusion and links the new elements.. ("public funds" did not appear before the conclusion...)

I do understand that negating answer choice (D) hurts the conclusion, but negating answer choice (E) does not have a broader effect?

The argument says: [i]So, since it is clear that art is often shocking[/i] If we say that anything that shocks is NOT art, doesn't have an effect on the on the whole argument? In that way we are saying that art is never shocking, therefore the conclusion lost sense...

Please your comments, I'm really confused about this one!

Thanks in advance.


We can disqualify option E in two different ways:

1. By reasoning it out: The conclusion is that "we should not hesitate to use public funds to support works of art that many people find shocking."
This statement clearly does not require that "Anything that shocks is art." We only need to be concerned about "art" that many people find shocking.

2. Even if you do negate the statement, "Anything that shocks is NOT art." is not the correct logical negation.

"Anything that shocks is art" is logically negated to "NOT everything that shocks is art", which, as you can see does nothing to the argument.
The other way of reading this is "Some of the things that shock are NOT art." which again, leaves the argument unharmed.
The fallacy above (in your argument) was incorrectly negating the statement.

Hence, we can rule out E.

Cheers!

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by [email protected] » Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:32 pm
Thanks man, It was just applying the negation technique correctly.
I'am going to read very well that book, I feel it very helpfull

Now definitely D is the best option...

Regards,

Ricardo

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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:46 am
[email protected] wrote:Thanks man, It was just applying the negation technique correctly.
I'am going to read very well that book, I feel it very helpfull

Now definitely D is the best option...

Regards,

Ricardo
Great explanation from eagleeye.
One more important point.
The negation of the correct answer choice must invalidate the CONCLUSION.
The negation of E bears only on the PREMISE that art is often shocking.
A premise is a FACT; it cannot be disputed.
Any answer choice that attempts to weaken the PREMISE of a CR can be eliminated.
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