Let's diagram the principle. The necessary condition of the sufficient/necessary statement is "to have both originality and far reaching influence." So the diagram will look like this:
TG - > O & FRI (If it is classified as a truly great work of art, then it has originality and far reaching influence.)
Contrapositive:
not O or not FRI - > not TG (if it is not original or does not have far reaching influence, then it is not classified as a truly great work of art.)
Let's first look at answer choice (C). Answer choice (C) states that the work of art is original and has far reaching influence, so therefore, it is a great work of art. But, these two variables (being original and having far reaching influence) comprise the necessary condition of the principle. The necessary condition does not lead us to any new information. Remember don't just reverse; you must reverse and negate for it to be the correct contrapositive. You cannot take the existence of the necessary condition to conclude the sufficient condition. That is why (C) is incorrect.
Answer choice (B) establishes that the work of art does not have far reaching influence, which it uses to establish that it is, therefore, not a truly great work of art. Not having far reaching influence is the sufficient condition of the contrapositive of our principle. Therefore, if the art does not have far reaching influence, then it is not classified as a truly great work of art. So, the principle found in the argument does support this answer, which makes it our correct answer.
Remember that there are only two ways to validly apply a general principle: (1) invoke the sufficient condition of the general principle to conclude the necessary condition, or (2) invoke the sufficient condition of the contrapositive to conclude the necessary condition of the contrapositive. As such, to be a valid application of this principle, the answer choice would either (1) invoke truly great to conclude original and far-reaching or (2) invoke not original or not far-reaching to conclude not truly great. Using this trick you can immediately eliminate (A) where the conclusion is "truly great," (C) where the conclusion is "truly great," (D) where the conclusion is "fails to be original" and (E) where the conclusion is "it has broad popular appeal as well" (i.e. far-reaching).
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!
YangDecember 14, 2015
naz I found you are too quick and jumpy i.e. Way too smart for me to grasp....answer C didn't negate and reverse anything to conclude S condition, it's all in positive words... Really don't understand this one.
YangDecember 14, 2015
My fault, I thought you are explaining the correct answer is C. Sorry
rexcolemanSeptember 25, 2017
Hi Naz. I read your answer above. Will you explain with answer choice E is not correct? Is "broad popular appeal" different than "far reaching influence upon the artistic community?"
HaylyeOctober 20, 2017
@Naz please answer why E is incorrect. As someone else's question from 9/25 still hasn't been answered...
MehranOctober 22, 2017
Hi @Haylye, thanks for your post. Yes, "broad popular appeal" is a different concept than "far-reaching influence upon the artistic community." Artists are a specific sub-group; popular appeal means mass appeal. There is no textual support in the stimulus for "broad popular appeal," so (E) can be eliminated. Hope this helps.
alymathieuSeptember 29, 2018
I'm confused as to why b is correct. Since the art is considered original doesn't the contrapositive allow for the art to still be considered truly great as it is not fri or not o?
Samantha-AlexisMay 7, 2019
Just to make sure, answer e was eliminated because of the added "broad popular appeal". So, on these type of questions, if an answer choice supports the argument and then adds a little extra information that's not originally stated in the argument, we should get rid of it?
Because for me, the premise: far-reaching influence on musicians = the premise: far reaching influence on artistic community.
