S. R. Evans: A few critics have dismissed my poems as not being poems and have dismissed me as not being a poet. But ...

Naz November 10, 2014

The conclusion of the argument is: "These critics' judgments should be rejected, since these critics are not true poets."

Why? We know that one principle of criticism is that only true poets can recognize poetic creativity or function as critics of poetry, and that the only true poets are those whose work conveys genuine poetic creativity. S.R. Evans states that she has read the work of these critics and none of it demonstrated poetic creativity.

Okay, so we know that only true poets can recognize poetic creativity or function as critics of poetry, and that the only true poets are those whose work conveys genuine poetic creativity.

So: if you can recognize creativity or function as a critic, then you are a true poet.

P1: RC or FC ==> TP
not TP ==> not RC and not FC

And: If you are a true poet, then your work conveys genuine poetic creativity.

P2: TP ==> WCGPC
not WCGPC ==> not TP

So, S.R. Evans is saying that these critics who said she had no poetic merit cannot accurately criticize her because if you can accurately criticize a writer, then you are a true poet; and S.R. Evans had read these critics' works and determined that they are not true writers, therefore (according to the contrapositive of P1) they cannot recognize creativity and they cannot function as critics.

However, S.R. Evans is overlooking one thing. Only a true poet can recognize creativity or function as a critic. So, she is assuming that she is a true poet, which is what she is trying to conclude in the first place.

Thus, she is presupposing what she is trying to conclude, i.e. answer choice (A): "presupposes what it sets out to conclude, since the principle requires that only true poets can determine whether the critics' work demonstrates poetic creativity,"--so S.R. Evans cannot say that the critics are not "True Poets," without being a "True Poet" herself.

Let us know if you have any specific questions about the other answer choices.

Hope that was helpful! Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Samantha-Alexis June 18, 2019

Hi Melody,

Thanks for your explanation. However, I am concerned about the diagrams you mentioned below: if you can recognize creativity or function as a critic, then you are a true poet.
P1: RC or FC ==> TP
not TP ==> not RC and not FC
And: If you are a true poet, then your work conveys genuine poetic creativity.
P2: TP ==> WCGPC
not WCGPC ==> not TP

The stimulus uses the word ONLY in the 2nd premise, whereas you wrote it out not including the word only. So, I ended up mixing up the sufficient and necessary terms of the 2nd premise of the stimulus. Is there a reason you did this? Am I missing something?

Victoria June 19, 2019

Hi @Samantha-Alexis,

The stimulus uses "the only." Remember that "only" introduces a necessary condition whereas "the only" introduces a sufficient condition.

In this way, "the only true poets" is identical to "if you are a true poet" in that they both introduce the sufficient condition.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.