LR Question 8 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Robinson: Wexell says that the museum wasted its money…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: The museum didn’t waste money.
REASONING: Displaying the items is the only way to show them to the public.
ANALYSIS: The argument completely ignored Wexell’s criticism that the objects have no value outside of a performance.
Wexell would say there’s no point showing these objects to the public, since they can’t be used in a performance.
___________
- This is a completely different error. It’s like saying: ‘Everyone I saw today is young. So the entire city must be young.’
- CORRECT. Wexell doesn’t care about displaying the objects. He thinks they’re useless if they’re not used in a performance.
- Robinson didn’t attack Wexell personally. In fact, he ignored Wexell completely.
- This is a different error. It’s like saying ‘we won’t send humans to Mars because we haven’t proven we can’.
- This is a different argument. It’s like saying you need a 180 and a 4.3 GPA to get to law school, just because those are (usually) sufficient to get to law school.
More Resources for Flaw Questions
- Flaw drills: Use these to practice making examples of abstract flaws.
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Flaw questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers flaw questions.
I don’t understand why B is not correct? Doesn’t he address the point that Wexell made? Like Wexell’s point was “Because such items have no artistic significance outside the context of a performance.”
And then Robinson states “But many of the props and costumes are too old and fragile for use in a performance”
Isn’t that addressing the point directly?
Yes, (B) is indeed the correct answer to this question.
Your reasoning is correct too, though I’d add (like the explanation says) that Robinson brings up that this is the only way these items can be displayed to the public, which has nothing to do with Wexell’s point about the artistic significance of these items.