PrepTest 122, Section 4, Question 16
There is a difference between beauty and truth.(41 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AThe most beautiful(5 more words not shown)
- BIf an artwork(10 more words not shown)
- CNone of the(4 more words not shown)
- DOnly the best(3 more words not shown)
- EAn artwork's beauty(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Beauty and truth sound different to me. Something can be accurate without being especially pleasant to look at. But agreeing with a conclusion can make it easy to skim past a gap in the argument for it.
Look at what the author actually compares. The opening claim concerns beauty and truth. The evidence connects realism with truth, then tells us that many of the most realistic artworks aren't among the best. Wait—when did “best” become the same thing as “most beautiful”?
A work might be considered great because of its themes or meaning, even if it isn't particularly beautiful. Unless we connect beauty with being the best, the evidence about the best art won't establish the claimed difference between beauty and truth.
What we’re looking for
For the necessary-assumption question, I'd look for that connection. We need the author's test of the claim—comparing the most truthful works with the best works—to actually tell us something about beauty.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The most beautiful works must be the best works for the author's comparison to function as intended. Now, if beauty and truth were the same, the most truthful works would also be the most beautiful, and those works would be the best. The fact that many of the most truthful works aren't among the best could then support rejecting that initial equation. Without the beauty-to-best link, the comparison uses a standard that the conclusion never identifies with beauty.
- B
Realistic art is described as most truthful, but that doesn't require every unrealistic element to make a work entirely untruthful. A work could express some truth without being perfectly realistic. More importantly, this extra rule about truth doesn't connect the author's evidence about the best art with beauty.
- C
The author doesn't need all the best artworks to be unrealistic. Some could be highly realistic while others weren't. The argument points to many realistic works that aren't among the best; it doesn't need a complete separation of the two groups. C is much stronger than the reasoning requires.
- D
This would exclude every work outside the best group from being beautiful at all. A moderately beautiful work could fall short of being one of the best without upsetting the comparison about the most beautiful works. D turns the limited connection we need into a rule about every beautiful work.
- E
Whether beauty depends on the viewer is a separate issue. The author could use an objective standard of beauty or a shared subjective judgment and still make this comparison. The argument needs the connection between beauty and best, not a theory about where judgments of beauty come from.
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