There is a popular view among literary critics that a poem can never be accurately paraphrased because a poem is itse...

Skylar on October 12, 2019

@ddib Happy to help! Let's take a look.

P: Some literary critics believe a poem cannot be accurately paraphrased (because they say a poem is the only accurate expression of its meaning).
P: These same literary critics believe their paraphrases of poems are accurate.
C: Their belief that poems cannot be accurately paraphrased is false.

So, we see two contradictory premises offered. In order to resolve this contradiction, the argument decides that the first premise must be untrue. However, the argument gives no support or reasoning for deciding that the first premise was false, when it could have just as easily decided that the second premise was false. Therefore, answer choice (D)- the argument "provides no justification for favoring one of the literary critics' beliefs over the other"- is correct.

Does this make sense? Please let us know if you have any additional questions.