#20 - Must Be True, Principle

[reop6780]

#20)

Is "visibility" in answer D stating "accessibility" mentioned in line 20?

Also, what kind of "artist's visions" is mentioned in the stimuli?

I chose answer A...

I thought answer A generally states overall stimuli...

[David Boyle]

#20)

Is "visibility" in answer D stating "accessibility" mentioned in line 20?

Also, what kind of "artist's visions" is mentioned in the stimuli?

I chose answer A...

I thought answer A generally states overall stimuli...

Hello,

Yes, I think that visibility relates to accessibility pretty strongly.
Watteau's vision seems to relate to being witty, amiable, charming, etc. But Watteau's vision was influential because it was accessible/visible, not just because it was pleasant.

David

[reop6780]

Thanks, Dave!

[CristinaCP]

Hi!

I chose [D] because it most closely resembled my prephrase and directly related to the textual evidence from lines 6-14. Also the other answers were clearly wrong. But I was still a bit hesitant because the AC suggests a conditional relationship between impact and visibility: strong impact on society ---> visibility. But the passage indicates a causal relationship between the two: Watteau's work had an impact on French society because it was highly accessible. And aren't conditional statements very different from causal statements? Like we can identify a cause of an effect without saying that the cause is a necessary condition for the effect. So I wondered if this AC was distorting the causal reasoning in the argument.

Inferring a conditional relationship from a causal relationship would normally be a logical error, right? So why isn't that a problem for this question?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Cristina,

You're absolutely right that the passage indicates a causal relationship and Answer D indicates a conditional relationship. While you're right to note this difference and to be suspicious of Answer D for this reason, this answer still comes the closest of the answers to capturing the relationship between an artist's work and its impact on society (and the closest match of your prephrase as you mentioned).

While causal reasoning and conditional reasoning are different and should be treated differently, there are certain situations where they do overlap. For example, one stimulus on the LSAT stated "the only thing that could cause this joist to break is ...." This statement contains both causal and conditional language .

Keep in mind that this is a principle question. A principle is a broad rule that is often conditional in nature, so don't worry too much here that the answer is stated conditionally.

Of course, if this were a Method, a Flaw, or a Parallel Reasoning question, then the difference between causal and conditional would be critical.