People's political behavior frequently does not match their rhetoric. Although many complain about government interv...
hjordan1217July 11, 2020
What is the role of the first line in the argument?
I chose A as I thought the first line was the conclusion of the argument or the authors main point. However there may be a difference between the main point or general sense of the argument and the conclusion that I’m missing
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Thanks for the question! This is a pretty tricky one, but you are right in that the first line in the argument is the conclusion of the argument/the author’s main point. The issue is that the line “voters often reelect politicians whose behavior they resent” is also a type of conclusion, but it’s not the main conclusion, it’s a subsidiary conclusion. A subsidiary conclusion is a statement that is supported by other premises in the passage, but itself goes on to support the main conclusion. So here’s the basic structure of this argument:
Premise: Many people complain about government intervention in their lives, but tend not to reelect inactive politicians. Premise: A politician’s activity consists largely in the passage of laws whose enforcement affects voters’ lives. Subsidiary conclusion (from premises 1 and 2): Voters often reelected politicians whose behavior they resent. Main conclusion (from subsidiary conclusion and premise 1): People’s political behavior frequently does not match their rhetoric.
And this is why (B) is the correct answer, even though the first line is the main conclusion. People tend not to reelect inactive politicians is a premise that supports a (subsidiary) conclusion.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
