#19 - Anyone who believes in democracy has a high regard

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Justify the Conclusion—SN.. The correct answer choice is (B)

Here we are presented with several conditional statements, including a conclusion that must be
justified. The first statement is that if you believe in democracy, you respect the wisdom of the
masses:

believe in democracy respect wisdom of masses

The contrapositive of this statement tells us that if you don’t respect the wisdom of the masses, then
you do not believe democracy:

respect wisdom of masses believe in democracy

The next statement concerns Griley, who believes popular artwork is unlikely to be good. From this
premise the author concludes that Griley does not believe in democracy:

popular artwork is unlikely to be good believe in democracy

Considering the above two conditional statements, we can clearly see the logical “leap” to the
conclusion:

If you don’t respect the wisdom of the masses, then you don’t believe in democracy.
Thus, if you believe popular art is unlikely to be good, then you don’t believe in democracy. The
author sees Griley’s popular art criticism as reflecting a lack of respect for the wisdom of the masses.

Having noted this missing link in the author’s conditional reasoning chain, we should not be
surprised to see a Justify question stem follow.

The correct answer choice will be the one that effectively links the “rogue elements” discussed
above: a lack of confidence in the quality of popular artwork and a failure to respect the wisdom of
the masses.

Answer choice (A): The author does say that Griley is an elitist, but this fact is not a component of
any of the conditional rules presented. Further, this choice fails to link the rogue elements from the
stimulus, so this choice cannot justify the conclusion drawn by the author.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. It is the only choice which links the rogue
elements from the stimulus and allows the author’s conditional conclusion to be properly drawn, as
we can see by diagramming the relevant statements:

Premise (contrapositive): respect wisdom of masses believe in democracy
+ Answer choice: believe pop artwork unlikely good respect wisdom of masses
pop artwork unlikely good respect wisdom of masses believe in democracy

The conditional chain above illustrates how this answer choice justifies the author’s conclusion: If
Griley believes that popular artwork is unlikely to be good, then he does not respect the wisdom of
the masses. Thus, he does not believe in democracy.

Answer choice (C): The stimulus provides that Griley is an elitist, so this choice provides no useful
information—there is no reason to consider what happens if Griley is not an elitist, and no way that
this statement can justify the author’s conclusion. And although this choice includes the condition
“high regard for the wisdom of the masses,” it does not link it to beliefs about popular artwork, so it
cannot be the right answer choice.

Answer choice (D): In order to justify the author’s conclusion about Griley, we need to assume that
people who are skeptical about the quality of popular art (such as Griley) do not have enough respect
for the wisdom of the masses. This choice reverses this condition, so it cannot justify the author’s
conclusion.

Answer choice (E): This choice says that respect for the wisdom of the masses requires a belief in
democracy. This choice does not provide the needed link to Griley’s beliefs about popular art, so it
does not justify the author’s conclusion that Griley doesn’t believe in democracy.

[gcs4v333]

I understand the conditional in the first sentence, but I don't see why - in the explanation at the back of the LR Bible Workbook - the second sentence and conclusion are not split into a conditional and a conclusion, given the conditional indicator "any" in the second sentence.

To show my work, the first sentence is: "Anyone who believes in democracy has a high regard for the wisdom of the masses" which I diagrammed as: BD HRWM.

The second sentence is: "Griley, however, is an elitist who believes that any artwork that is popular is unlikely to be good" (emphasis mine) which I diagrammed as: AP G

Then the last sentence is: "Thus, Griley does not believe in democracy." Which I labeled BD as my conclusion.

So my diagram looked like:

BD HRWM.
AP G
---------------
BD

I ended up correctly choosing B, but I had a real hard time choosing between B and D, since they're both opposites of each other. They both had the correct "rogue" elements, but my diagram made it difficult to tell which one should be in the sufficient position, and which in the necessary.

Of course, the problem would've been easier if I had diagrammed it like you did in the LR Bible Workbook, but the "Any" at the beginning of the second sentence made me think that that sentence was conditional, not that it and the next sentence were part of one conditional statement.

Does that make sense? How can I not make that same mistake in the future?

The diagram in the LR Bible WB by the way, was

BD RWM (contrapositive RWM BD)
-----------
PAUG BD

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi GCS,

I love how much thought you put into this question, and you've done a really good job at recognizing some key issues in this question.

First, let's talk about conditionality. You are correct that "any" is a conditional indicator. But not every conditional indicator indicates there is a conditional. For example "I do not want any more pizza." It uses the term "any" but it is not conditional. The statement "any artwork that is popular is unlikely to be good" could be considered similar to a conditional. It is a little off however, using the term "unlikely." Conditional statements create a strong if---then relationship between the sufficient and necessary conditions. If you have the sufficient, you know you have the necessary. The "unlikely" terminology here weakens that link, which is why we don't treat it conditionally.

So, let's take a look at what we do have here.

BD(believe in democracy RWM (regard for the wisdom of the masses)
-----------
PAUG (pop artwork unlikely to be good) (conclusion) NOT BD

How do we link these up?

Let's work backwards. What would tell us Griley does NOT BD? Not RMW. That's the contrapositive, so we know it's true. But the stimulus doesn't establish NOT RMW. So we turn to what we do know about Griley? He believes popular artwork is unlikely to be good (PAUG). If PAUG is sufficient for NOT RMW, we are set. And that's what answer choice (B) does.

Hope that helps!
Rachael