Anyone who believes in democracy has a high regard for the wisdom of the masses. Griley, however, is an elitist who b...

BrandyL on September 25, 2019

please Explain. Thanks

Elaborate further to help others answer your question.

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SamA on September 25, 2019

Hello @BrandyL,

I think that diagramming this argument will help us to understand it.

Premise: Anyone who believes in democracy (BD) has a high regard for the wisdom of the masses (HR).

BD - - - - - - - - -> HR

The contrapositive tells us: If someone does not have a high regard for the wisdom of the masses (not HR), then that person does not believe in democracy (not BD).

not HR - - - - - - - - - - - > not BD

Premise: Griley is an elitist who believes that popular artwork is unlikely to be good (UTBG).

Conclusion: Griley does not believe in democracy.

What does Griley's opinion on popular art have to do with democracy? This seems to be a hole in the argument. We need to find an answer choice that completes the argument. I'll diagram answer choice B to demonstrate why it is the correct answer.

B. Anyone who believes that if an artwork is popular it is unlikely to be good (UTBG) does not have a high regard for the wisdom of the masses (not HR).

UTBG - - - - - - - - > not HR

Now, using our contrapositive from above, we can finally link the arguments.

UTBG - - - - - - - - - > not HR - - - - - - - - - > not BD

This would explain why Griley does not believe in democracy, which justifies our conclusion.