PrepTest 104, Section 4, Question 15
It is often said that beauty is subjective.(58 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AFew contemporary artists(10 more words not shown)
- BThe arts held(14 more words not shown)
- COur own standard(17 more words not shown)
- DMuch of what(15 more words not shown)
- EIn most cultures(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if we learned to admire the same things they admired? Similar standards of beauty don't have to be independent evidence of an objective standard. Our culture could have inherited preferences from earlier cultures.
The author points to works earlier cultures considered beautiful and notices that we still regard them as beautiful. That similarity is real within the argument. But suppose people grow up seeing those works celebrated, study them, and learn to appreciate their features. The shared judgment could come from that influence rather than from beauty being independent of people's tastes.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to weaken the argument. My prediction is evidence that our standards developed from those earlier standards. That would explain the agreement without requiring the author's conclusion that beauty cannot be subjective.
Working the answers
- A
This points away from the influence we predicted. If contemporary artists haven't been significantly exposed to earlier art, it is harder to explain their similar standards through directly encountering those works. That could lend some support to the author's view rather than weaken it. The answer concerns artists, not everyone in our culture, so it doesn't establish complete independence; either way, it doesn't give us the requested reason to doubt the argument.
- B
How important art was to a culture doesn't determine whether its standard of beauty was subjective. Art could play a central role or a minor role while people's judgments remained influenced by learned preferences. This doesn't explain away the similarity the author relies on.
- CCorrect
This gives us the influence we predicted. We were exposed to works earlier cultures considered beautiful, and that exposure strongly shaped our own standard. So the agreement between the cultures may reflect a standard being passed along. It need not show that they independently recognized an objective feature of beauty.
C doesn't prove that all beauty is subjective. It weakens the particular argument by offering another reason for the shared judgment. The author can't rely on that agreement as though cultural influence had been ruled out.
- D
Important art isn't necessarily beautiful art. A work might be important for an innovation, a message, or its place in history without being considered beautiful. The argument compares what earlier cultures and our culture regard as beautiful, not whether everything we call important meets our standard of beauty. D doesn't undermine that comparison.
- E
Ownership and standards of beauty are different matters. A small elite could own the works while many people see and admire them. The answer doesn't tell us that the elite's judgments differ from everyone else's, or that ownership explains the similarity across cultures. It supplies no clear challenge to the author's inference.
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