Monica: The sculpture commissioned for our town plaza has been scorned by the public ever since it went up. But s...

shunhe on July 13, 2020

Hi @avif,

Thanks for the question! So Monica says that even though people don’t like the sculpture, they don’t know much about contemporary art, and so their dislike says nothing about the work’s artistic merit and so there’s no reason to take the sculpture down. Hector, on the other hand, says that what Monica says about artistic merit might be true, but the statue should still be taken down because a work of art commissioned for a public space should benefit the public, and popular opinion determines what the public feels is to its benefit, so if the public doesn’t like it, they should get rid of the statue.

Now we’re asked for something that Hector assumes when he responds to Monica. Take a look at (A). Does Hector assume that no matter what the public’s opinion is on an issue affecting the public good, that public opinion ought to be acted on, even though the opinion may not be knowledgeable? No, not at all. And one immediate reason we can see why (A) is wrong is that it’s simply far too broad. Remember that Hector (and Monica) are both talking about artwork. Hector even says that “a work of art that was commissioned for a public space ought to benefit the public.” So clearly Hector’ argument is about art. But (A) is about any issue that affects the public good; it’s way too broad, and Hector doesn’t need to assume something as broad as (A). If we negate it, we can see that it doesn’t wreck Hector’s argument when it’s wrong.

(E), on the other hand, is assumed by Hector. Remember that Hector says that popular opinion is the only way of determining what the public feels is to its benefit. But also, a work of art commissioned for a public space should benefit the public. There’s a gap between benefitting the public and what the public feels is to its benefit; and this is what (E) fills up. If (E) is wrong, the argument breaks apart, since that link is broken.

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

avif on July 13, 2020

Thanks. It does.

shunhe on July 14, 2020

Glad I could help!