PrepTest 114, Section 3, Question 12

Working the answers

• A

  The word “never” may initially look worrying. Couldn't coercion accompany a well-reasoned argument? Yes, but the choice says intellectual authority never depends on coercion. Its authority comes from its reasons even if an institution also enforces it. That matches the definition.

• B
  Correct

  Institutional authority can accept a good argument. The opening explicitly includes arguments that can be either well reasoned or poorly reasoned (paragraph 1). The institution's power doesn't depend on good reasoning, but that doesn't prevent the argument it supports from being well reasoned. B wrongly makes that overlap impossible.

• C

  This fits. Institutional practices may rest on convention; intellectual authority, as defined in the first sentence, does not.

• D

  The second paragraph describes reasonable arguments challenging institutional beliefs. In the distinction drawn here, that challenge comes from the argument's merits, while institutional authority rests on institutional acceptance. D fits that contrast; it isn't a general claim that institutions can never disagree with each other.

• E

  Precedent is an example of institutional authority: follow the decision because it was decided that way before. Questioning its reasoning brings intellectual authority into play. E matches those contrasting roles.