#19 - Most movie critics believe that sentimentality

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[dandelionsroar]

What is the type of reasoning used here in the stimulus? I know it is not conditional.

Thanks:)

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Dandelion,

This can probably be best seen as a variation of the common flaw where "some evidence against a position is used to conclude the position is false." The critic doesn't like why/how they believe a certain thing, and uses that to dismiss their entire position.

Thanks!

[lsatquestions]

Can you please explain this answer in more detail?

[Adam Tyson]

The argument provides some reason to think that perhaps the critics are wrong, and their biases based on their personal experiences may have led them to a false conclusion. Maybe sentimentality doesn't detract from aesthetic value, they just think it does because they are so pleased at the few occasions when it is absent?

But just because their experiences MAY have led they to a false conclusion doesn't mean that it IS a false conclusion. The author has SOME evidence that they could be wrong, but that evidence isn't conclusive, and they have given it too much weight in reaching too strong a conclusion. That's what a "some evidence" flaw is all about - taking some evidence that might help or hurt a position and then concluding that it is enough to prove or disprove that position.

[lsatep2024]

Could someone explain (B) vs (D) more clearly/in simple language - perhaps because it's so straightforward that I'm making myself confused... I know (D) is right and matches far better but I am somehow struggling to distinguish it clearly from (B)

[Luke Haqq]

Hi lsatep2024!

The key language in answer choice (B) is "ulterior motive." For an answer choice mentioning that to be correct, you'd want something more in the stimulus, like, "the only reason the critics believe this is because they'll get more money," or "they just say they believe this because it increases their status or stature." Those are examples of ulterior motives.

Answer choice (D) states that the flaw is that the argument "concludes that a view is false merely on the grounds of how people came to believe it." How these critics came to their belief (by watching so many movies) seems potentially relevant, but it doesn't make their belief false. Rather, as Dave and Adam indicate above, the author of this stimulus takes some evidence against the truth of a belief as demonstrating that the belief is false, which is stronger than what is warranted.