Montgomery, a biologist who is also well read in archaeology, has recently written a book on the origin and purpose o...

BenMingov on June 28, 2020

Hi Filozinni, thanks for the question.

The only real support given for the conclusion that Montgomery does not deserve a negative appraisal is showing that his work wasn't more extreme than some professional archaeologists.

However, as A points out, if those professional archaeologists did deserve negative appraisals for this reason of extreme views then this conclusion doesn't hold up at all. It would seem then that giving a negative appraisal to Montgomery should be a very valid option.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

shunhe on June 28, 2020

Hi @filozinni,

Thanks for the question! So let’s take a look at the stimulus here. We’re told that Montgomery (a biologist) wrote a book about architecture that got criticized by professional archaeologists for being too extreme. But, concludes the argument, it doesn’t deserve negative reviews. Why? Because Montgomery’s views are no more extreme than the views of some professional archaeologists.

Now we’re asked to find a flaw in the argument. This is something that we can anticipate before we go into the answer choices. Here’s one thing that comes to mind: we say that Montgomery’s views shouldn’t be viewed in a negative light because they’re not more extreme than some pro archaeologists. But what if those pro archaeologists have views that should be viewed negatively? Then it does make sense to think negatively of Montgomery’s views.

Looking at (A), this is what it states. The argument doesn’t establish that professional archaeologists at least as extreme as Montgomery’s views don’t deserve negative appraisal for that reason; if they do, then Montgomery’s views also deserve negative appraisal, which would mean the conclusion is false. And the argument doesn’t deal with this possibility, a flaw, so (A) is the correct answer.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

filozinni on July 2, 2020

Thank you very much @Ben and @Shunhe!