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

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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 (HRWM).

BD - - - - - - - - -> HRWM

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.

SamA on September 25, 2019

Apologies, I didn't mean to use two different abbreviations. HR and HRWM are the same, they both refer to high regard for the wisdom of the masses.