PT49,S4,Q16 Truth and Beauty

[jhouseut]

I'm struggling with this question.

-DTB -> MRBEST
MR - > MT
MR<-S->-BEST
Conclusion: DTB


I would normally create a chain and see how to get DTB as the outcome.
-MRBEST -> DTB

(A) because it agrees with -MRBEST -> DTB?

Should I still be working from wrong to right on formal logic questions. My gut tells me to build a chain and look for a match or contrapositive a match.

[dan]

This is a really tough question. Taking a wrong to right approach is always a good idea. That said, if you're really not sure what type of answer you're looking for, wrong to right won't work very well.

Hopefully on this question you saw that there was a fundamental gap between "best" and "beautiful." The conclusion (the first sentence) compares truth and beauty. The rest of the argument sticks with truth, but starts using the word "best" as a replacement for "beauty." Did you see this? If so, you can anticipate that the correct assumption will bridge the gap between "best" and "beautiful." This should allow us to eliminate (B), (C), and (E). If you don't know how to proceed from here, you can take a guess between (A) and (D).

So how do we proceed from here? Let's simplify this by assigning some letters for each part of the argument:

W = beauty
X = truth
Y = realistic
Z = best

The argument gives us two premises...

Y = X
Y =/= Z

... and then makes the following conclusion:

W =/= X

If we think just in terms of the letters, what do we need to assume in order to draw that conclusion?

Well, if W and Z are the same, we'd have it. Let's substitute W in for Z and see if it works:

Y = X
Y =/= W

So, W =/= X

This works! Again, the assumption was that W is the same as Z. Substituting the language back in, beauty = best. Answer (A) gives us this.

Notice that the reverse would be fine as well: best = beauty, or the best artworks are the most beautiful artworks. Answer (D) comes close to giving us this, but it's not quite the right wording: only the best artworks are beautiful. This implies that only the best artworks, and nothing else in the world, are beautiful. We don't need to assume this much.

Hope that helps.

dan

[noah]

Here's another "official" explanation:

16. (A)
Question type: Assumption
This argument concludes that beauty and truth are not the same thing. This is based on the fact that many of the most realistic pieces of art are not considered some of the best, which would have to be the case since the most realistic pieces are the most truthful ones as well. Reading closely, there is a detail creep from discussing beauty to discussing the best. This argument would make sense if the two were equated, which (A) does. If we negate (A), the argument does not make sense any longer since the topic of the supporting premise would not relate to the conclusion.

A stripped-down version of this question’s argument might be the following: Wolves are not the same as Apples, because if they were, then Dogs would be the same as Pears, since Pears are basically the same as Apples. But, as we all know, many Dogs are not Pears. This argument, besides being a bit silly, is missing the idea that Dogs are the same as Wolves.

(B) is out of scope since it focuses on nonrealistic elements.
(C) is unnecessary since the argument already establishes the premise that some examples of this type of art are not among the best. The argument, if it were complete, requires just one example to break the pattern, not that every example violate it.
(D) is very tempting since it links beauty and being the best. However, the fact that only the best art is beautiful is not required for the argument to make sense. If we negate this answer"”the best artwork is not the only ones that are beautiful"”the argument still makes sense, meaning that the assumption is not required.
(E) is out of scope.