#25 - Anthropologist: All music is based on a few main

[jrc3813]

Hey I have a question about answer A. I know why D is the right answer but I'm having trouble fully eliminating A. If there was an innate disposition of the human mind to prefer diatonic music, and no other factor contributed to a preference, then it would seem to imply that every person would prefer it. No amount of external factors would affect this. So if one person preferred nondiatonic music then that would surely weaken the argument. Is it because we don't know if he considered the possibility, and therefore isn't even factually true? Or is it because even if it were true, it's not actually a flaw?

[Eric Ockert]

Hey jrc!

Answer choice (A) doesn't work here due to the language in the stimulus. The author never asserts that diatonic music is the only system out there. He states that it has simply dominated the music of most of the world. This language allows for nondiatonic music to exist, and for some people to prefer it to diatonic music.

For answer choice (A) to be correct, we would have to say that the author is assuming that no people prefer nondiatonic to diatonic music (failing to consider that X is the case is the same as assuming that X is not the case). That's too bold. This argument makes sense as long as there isn't a "diverse mixture of diatonic and nondiatonic" music in the world. The fact that diatonic music dominates shows this lack of a diverse mixture.

Hope that helps!