PrepTest 109, Section 3, Question 16
Curator: Since ancient times, the fine arts were(70 more words not shown)
The curator's argument depends on(6 more words not shown)
- AThe fine arts(17 more words not shown)
- BIf contemporary governments(16 more words not shown)
- CIn contemporary societies,(13 more words not shown)
- DServing as stewards(13 more words not shown)
- EMaintenance, advancement, and(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
If the aristocracies and religious institutions aren't going to provide the support, does that automatically make it the government's job?
I can follow the historical point. The arts received major subsidies, and the curator doubts they would have survived without them. The modern recommendation then says society should fulfill its duty to preserve cultural heritage without those old sources of support.
My first question is whether those are the only options. What about ordinary people contributing, or an independently funded educational organization? Excluding aristocracies and religious institutions doesn't, by itself, leave government as the only possible source of money. We would need more information to know that those other possibilities cannot do the job.
What we’re looking for
For the necessary-assumption question, I'd initially look for something ruling out another funding route. But we must test what the curator actually needs to accept. A statement can help the recommendation without being a commitment the reasoning depends on.
Working the answers
- A
The argument doesn't require a claim about how much better the arts would be now if past governments had spent more. The curator relies on the importance of earlier support, not a comparison with an imagined, more generous history. A could be false without removing the claimed present obligation.
- B
The government could need to help while private support remained necessary too. The conclusion says governments must help finance the arts, not that they must replace every other contributor. B adds the much stronger claim that government involvement would make private support unnecessary.
- C
Willingness isn't the issue. The curator says society should fulfill its obligation without the assistance of aristocracies or religious institutions. Those groups might be willing to contribute even if society ought to proceed without them. The recommendation doesn't depend on their refusing to help.
- DCorrect
This catches a different connection from my first funding concern: what does being a steward of cultural heritage require?
Perhaps that responsibility could be fulfilled by preserving traditional songs or passing down recipes, without maintaining the fine arts. If so, the duty the curator cites wouldn't yet create a duty to support the arts.
D supplies that connection. Helping maintain the fine arts is required for society to serve as a steward of cultural heritage. The curator needs this link to use the stewardship obligation as a reason for the recommendation. It doesn't answer every possible question about who should provide the money, but a necessary assumption needn't finish the whole argument.
- E
“In any era” goes beyond the argument's present recommendation. The curator doesn't need to establish that governments must subsidize the arts in every possible historical setting. Some other era could sustain its arts differently while the current recommendation still applied. A universal rule is stronger than the commitment this reasoning requires.
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