#21 - The Japanese haiku is defined as a poem of three lines

[James Finch]

Hi Deck,

The issue with answer choice (E) is that it doesn't accurately describe what is going on in the stimulus; the stimulus does assume that "ignoring something implies a negative judgement about that thing" so it can't fail to acknowledge that. Instead, the issue is that it takes a negative implication and draws a very broad conclusion from the one example, far broader than could be logically supported by it. Answer choice (B) sums this up well, and is the correct answer.

Hope this helps!

[flowskiferda]

I still don't see why A is incorrect. The argument sees an objective fact (the fact that English poets incorrectly define Haikus) and thinks that this poor definition is indicative of FEELING a lack of respect. Is this not confusing a fact with feeling?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi flow,

I suppose there's a little ambiguity in the use of the term "respect" here, which potentially allows a sense of "feeling" to be read into the conclusion. But the conclusion shouldn't be read as making (primarily) an assertion about what English poets are feeling. Rather, it's making an assertion about what they do: they disregard the "proper" labels the Japanese assign to haikus, by disregarding syllable counts. This objective fact is what the author clearly means by using the term "respect." In other words, the assumption built into the conclusion is that respect for a tradition equates to letting the tradition guide your analysis and practice. You may say, "well I think respect for traditions is a feeling, and is purely subjective." But that's not necessarily the case. There's nothing inherent about the phrase "respect for tradition" that puts our author in a box preventing him/her from assuming that respect equates to following the tradition. Bottom line, we just don't have any evidence (and we aren't compelled to accept) that "respect for tradition" must be purely a matter of subjective feeling. For our author (and probably others) it's not.

Answer choice B is demonstrably a flaw in the argument, however, because our author talks broadly in the conclusion about "foreign traditions" (which would include any foreign tradition with which English poets interact) purely on the basis of behavior in respect to a single (the Japanese) foreign tradition.

I hope this helps!

[jennifersuh]

Hi!
Would E be right if this was an Assumption question type, and it asked what is the author assuming?
I was drawn to E because it seemed that if the author explicitly stated that ignoring something implies a negative judgment about that thing, then the conclusion would make sense.
But I realize now that that is seeing the question incorrectly, and that the question type is asking of me to take the stimulus as true. Rather than trying to strengthen it.

I understand why B is right, I just wanted to see if I am fully understanding why E would be wrong from the way I saw it.

[Ryan Twomey]

Hey Jennifer Suh,

If the start to the answer choice had said "takes for granted" or "presumes without providing justification that" then this answer choice would have been closer. It still wouldn't have been perfect, but it would have been more of a contender.

With flaw questions, it is very important to understand the difference between what I call the "assumes" answer choices and the "forgets" answer choices.

Examples of "forget" answer choices in flaw questions: "fails to consider," "ignores the possibility that" "fails to mention"

Examples of assume answer choices in flaw questions: "assumes without providing justification" "takes for granted" "presumes without providing justification that"

You need to treat these two types of answer choices very differently. One is describing something the argument did not do, and one is describing something the argument did do. In the case above it makes a huge difference, same with many other flaw questions.

I wish you all the luck in your studies.

Best,
Ryan