Occultist: The issue of whether astrology is a science is easily settled: it is both an art and a science. The scie...

Melody on September 24, 2014

The conclusion of this argument is: astrology is "both an art and a science."

Why? Well, it is a science because there are scientific components to astrology, such as "complicated mathematics" and the requirement of "astronomical knowledge." Likewise, it is considered an art because there is a "synthesis of a multitude of factors and symbols into a coherent statement of their relevance to an individual."

What is the leap here? Well, why does having scientific components make something a science? Why does having a synthesis of a multitude of factors make something an art? We are given no reason as to why these things make something a science or an art.

Furthermore, just because one part of something has a scientific component does not make the whole of it a science. No one can say that a cookie is butter because a cookie has butter as one of its many ingredients. So, as you can see, this is a part to whole flaw.

Answer choice (B) points out this exact flaw: "incorrectly infers that a practice is a science merely from the fact that the practice has some scientific components."

Again, just because some aspects of astrology have scientific components does not mean that astrology is a science.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.