Sahira: To make a living from their art, artists of great potential would have to produce work that would gain wides...

shunhe on June 26, 2020

Hi @bcross,

Thanks for the question! So let’s take a look at the stimulus. Sahira says that to make a living from their art, artists have to make work that is popular, not their best work. That’s why government subsidizes artists. Then, Rahima responds by saying, well, it doesn’t have to be true that artists have to produce something other than their best work to get popular.

Now, we’re asked for what Rahima does. Take a look at (E), which says that she says that Sahira’s argument has a self-contradictory standard. Is that what happens? Rahima does say that Sahira is assuming something that doesn’t have to be true, but that doesn’t mean that it’s self-contradictory. There’s nothing that contradicts itself about artists producing something other than their best work to get popular. And that’s why (E) isn’t right.

(A), on the other hand, says that Rahima disputes an implicit assumption of Sahira’s. Sahira’s implicit assumption here is that if you gain widespread acclaim, you have to do it with work that’s not your best work. And that’s exactly what Rahima does here when she questions that statement in her claim, which is why (A) is correct.

As to why it’s implicit: Sahira doesn’t come out and say “if you produce work that gains widespread popular acclaim, it’s not your best work.” But she does heavily rely on this assumption when she says “artists have to make work that gains widespread popular acclaim instead of their best work.” That statement relies on the assumption that these are two different groups that don’t overlap. So it might feel explicit in the sense that it’s obvious, but if it’s not said in one way or another in the stimulus, it’s implicit.

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

Jeremy on February 8, 2023

How is that an implicit assumption when Sahira explicitly states it in her argument?

Emil-Kunkin on February 10, 2023

Hi, I think if it were explicit she would have to have claimed "the work they produce for popular acclaim is not their best work" but she does not say this, rather, it is implied by her other statements.