#4 - Editorial: It is common to find essays offering

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thank you!

[samsamsam]

Why is it A and not E?

I feel like the argument doesn't actually introduce evidence to back up its conclusion. The conclusion is a judgment about the essays, so the essays themselves couldn't be evidence in support of the conclusion...? Hard to make that distinction on the fly.

But the argument definitely doesn't address the reasons in the essays showing that 'our nation is in decline.'

[James Finch]

Hi Sam,

The stimulus in this question attacks its opponents by criticizing their tone rather than the arguments themselves, which is a form of source argument flaw. (A) addresses this issue, while (E) describes an internal contradiction--presenting evidence that contradicts one's own conclusion. Here we don't see any evidence that is necessarily contradictory to the conclusion that the nation isn't necessarily in decline--the only evidence is that the writers have an anxious tone.

Hope this helps!

[caseyh123]

Can you expand more on why a is right and e is wrong? I chose e because I thought that the fact that the writers were in a bad psychological state could be "evidence that actually supports the view" that the nation is in decline (as in, the reason the authors are in an anxious psychological state is because their nation is declining).

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Casey!

Careful with your interpretation of answer choice (E). The authors of the essays being in a bad psychological state would not support the view that the nation is in decline. We cannot assume the reason for why they are in a bad psychological state. In fact, the psychological state of the authors tells us nothing about whether or not their arguments are correct because it tells us nothing about their actual arguments.

For Flaw questions, always identify the conclusion and the premises and ask yourself why don't the premises fully prove that conclusion. Here the conclusion is there is no reason to worry about the decline of the nation. Why? Because the authors writing essays arguing that our nation is in decline have psychological problems. That's a classic source argument. The author is attacking the source of the argument rather than addressing any of the actual claims supporting the argument, which is exactly what answer choice (A) describes.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[marioncarroll]

I chose E and I understand why it's wrong, just have a couple questions to strengthen my understanding. If E added in the terminology 'could' - as in "the editorial dismisses a particular view while offering evidence that COULD actually support that view" - would this make it a correct answer assuming A is not an option? Thanks!

[Robert Carroll]

marioncarroll,

I think that's reasonable. The evidence is compatible with the author's explanation (they're just being dramatic!) AND the essayists' explanation (our nation is really in decline!). The evidence isn't strong enough to prove anyone right, so the proper judgment would be no judgment at all - I don't know if the author or the essayists are right. Answer choice (E) is wrong because we can't really say the evidence actually does support the essayists - no one really has a strong point here at all.

Robert Carroll