#20 - Critic: Political utility determines the popularity

[jmb089]

Can someone please explain this question and why A is the correct answer?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi jmb,

It's very important in this Weaken question to properly identify the main conclusion, which is the first sentence: "Political utility determines the popularity of a metaphor." This is a cause and effect claim (utility causes popularity).

The author goes on to support that conclusion by claiming that the "human body" (as society) metaphor is pervasive (popular) in authoritarian societies, connecting this pervasiveness (popularity) to the political utility the metaphor has (it "promotes greater acceptance of authoritarian repression"). The author also makes an explicit comparison that suggests a different metaphor for society (society as family) has less political utility. If we're to believe the cause and effect relationship the author is arguing (utility causes popularity), then a metaphor with less political utility (like the family metaphor) ought not to be as popular (as pervasive).

Answer choice A thus weakens the author's argument, because it shows that a metaphor with less utility (the family metaphor) is just as pervasive as the body metaphor. This suggests that there's some cause of the popularity/pervasiveness of these metaphors other than just political utility.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[ivan.l99]

Could anyone elaborate as to why C is wrong?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Sure Ivan.

I like to start by focusing on the conclusion. Here, the conclusion is that the society-as-a-body metaphor promotes greater acceptance of authoritarian regimes than the society-as-family metaphor. Answer choice (C) is a shell game answer choice. It talks about nonauthoritarian regimes, and what metaphors are used there. It doesn't say what impact the metaphors have in nonauthoritarian regimes, or why they might use a certain metaphor in those regimes.

The conclusion in the stimulus is causal. The cause is the society-as-body metaphor, and the effect is greater acceptance of authoritarian regimes. The problem with answer choice (C) is that it doesn't really address the effect. The answer choice tells us that the society-as-body metaphor is sometimes used in non-authoritarian societies, but we don't know if the people there would be more accepting of an authoritarian regime than in places where that metaphor is not used.

Hope that helps!

[thomas33]

Hello,

I chose C. My pre-phrase was "what if it is not the case that the body promotes authoritarianism" . My prephrase may have been shortsighted and that the argument is actually comparative--promotes greater acceptance of authoritarianism than other metaphors such as the family one. Is that analysis correct? I was between A and C. I ultimately did not choose A because I was on the hunt for an example where the body metaphor was not promoting authoritarianism.

[Adam Tyson]

You've hit on what I think is the main problem with this argument, thomas33: it's a comparative conclusion, based on a premise that is absolute rather than comparative. Basically, the argument is:

1. The society-as-body metaphor is pervasive (popular) in authoritarian societies, so it must work well (have utility) in those societies.

2. Therefore, it must work better in authoritarian societies than other metaphors, like society-as-family.

Of course, one thing working well does not prove that it works any better than anything else. We should be weakening the argument not by showing that it doesn't work well, but by showing that it may not work any better than the alternatives. That's what answer A does.

Meanwhile, answer C focuses on the wrong societies: nonauthoritarian ones. We don't want to focus on those, because the argument is only about authoritarian societies. Answer C is a distraction because it's not relevant. Who cares if the same metaphor also works elsewhere? It could still be true that it's better than some alternatives in authoritarian societies.

Good job on your analysis after the fact! Look for those relative vs absolute flaws to appear again in your studies, because they are out there!

[cd1010]

Could someone help clarify why (C) is incorrect? I've read the explanation above. Could one not argue that this AC weakens the argument because it demonstrates the pattern "cause exists, but no effect" (i.e. use of the body of society as human body metaphor is there but the society is non authoritarian)?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi cd,

You want to be careful with identifying exactly what the relation stated in the conclusion is. According to the conclusion, the body metaphor "promotes greater acceptance of authoritarian repression than do other metaphors" (my emphasis). It is possible to have a (relatively) greater acceptance of authoritarian repression without fully being an authoritarian society. It is also possible that the body metaphor produces a greater acceptance of authoritarian repression than any other metaphors even if it is "sometimes used in non authoritarian societies" (my emphasis).