Art critic: Criticism focuses on two issues: first, whether the value of an artwork is intrinsic to the work; and s...

Mehran on November 12, 2017

Hi @sharpen7, thanks for your post. The last part of the last sentence of the stimulus says that if an artwork's value is not intrinsic, then it must be extrinsic (not I ==> E) and thus judgments about the quality of the work can only be a matter of taste (i.e., that when an artwork's value is extrinsic, judgments about the quality of that work can only be a matter of taste).

This Weaken question stem asks you what the art critic assumes (takes for granted) so that you can identify a weakness in the critic's argument.

Answer choice (C) is correct. The art critic assumes, without establishing, that judgments about extrinsic value must be subjective (a matter of taste), rather than objective. Nothing in the stimulus establishes this dichotomy. Put differently, there is no reason that a judgment about art whose value is extrinsic cannot be objective.

Hope this helps!

shafieiava on April 13, 2019

Why is the answer choice not D? I was able to understand that the relationship between extrinsic/intrinsic was at fault in the logic but I'm still having trouble arriving to answer choice C in particular.