Ruth: To become a politician, a person should be required to have a diversity of experience. The more diverse one'...

Irina on November 10, 2019

@ ali,

Let's look at the argument. Ruth is saying that to become a politician one should be required to have diverse experience. Stephanie responds that having diverse experience is not enough to be worthy of public trust. There are a couple of issues with Stephanie's response.

Stephanie clearly misinterprets Ruth's argument - Ruth is saying that having diverse/ varied experience is a necessary condition for one becoming a politician, meaning a politician must have diverse experience, but it is not a sufficient condition as Stepanie presumes, one having diverse experience does not guarantee that one would become a politician. Furthermore, Stephanie presupposes a broader conclusion - Ruth's argument is limited to a politician, whereas Stephanie expands it to apply to anyone worthy of public trust, which is arguably a broader set of people than just politicians.

(C) accurately describes the flaw - the response attributes to Ruth a view that is more vulnerable to criticism than any she actually expresses. Stephanie presumes that Ruth is saying that anyone with varied experience can become a politician/ be worthy of public trust, but it is a misinterpretation of Ruth's view - her view is that varied experience is simply one of the required attributes for a politician, which is a perfectly reasonable opinion and is thus less vulnerable to criticism than the view that Stephanie attributes to her.

Let's look at the rest of the answer choices.

(A) is incorrect because Stephanie does not assert an opposite view, rather she misinterprets and rejects what she perceives to be Ruth's view;
(B) is incorrect because Stephanie does not argue that experience is not beneficial rather than it is by itself insufficient to become a politician.
(D) is incorrect because the distinction between personal and professional experience is not at issue;
(E) is incorrect because it is out of scope, Stephanie never discusses flexibility.

Let me know if this makes sense and if you have any further questions.