#5 - Global, Must Be True, Author's and Subject Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (A).

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[jessamynlockard]

Hi,
Would it be possible to get some more explanation on question #5? Though the line reference 33-36 is helping me understand where I went wrong, could you discuss why I should've rejected choices B & E? It did seem like the passage had a secondary question/theme about the degree to which Rembrant painted his own works.
Thanks in advance!

[James Finch]

Hi Jessamyn,

This is a Must Be True asking about a point of agreement between the author of the passage and the subject of the passage. As an RC MBT, there will be some textual support for the correct answer choice.

Looking over the passage, the author very clearly disagrees with the subject, Alpers, about her conclusions. Where Alpers is positioned as attributing only entrepreneurial motives to Rembrandt, the passage's author argues that while he may have been motivated by pecuniary gain, he also had artistic and aesthetic motives as well. From that summary, we can see that the author's only concession to Alpers's viewpoints is that Rembrandt may have "made some aesthetic decisions on the basis of what he knew the market wanted."

Going through the answer choices, we can see that (A) aligns very closely with the quote above. (B) is an Opposite Answer, directly contradicted by the second sentence of the passage. (C) is stating Aspers's position, which is in direct conflict with the viewpoint of the passage's author. (D) is possible, but isn't mentioned anywhere in the passage, and thus lacks textual support. (E) references the controversy mentioned in the first paragraph, but the passage only asserts that there is a dispute, and not certainty that Rembrandt did not paint the painting himself. So this answer is also incorrect.

Hope this helps!

[jessamynlockard]

Thanks so much! Between re-reading the passage a couple of days later and your explanation, I feel like I totally get it now.

[deck1134]

I don't understand why this is A. Isn't D substantiated by lines 55-56? For A, the 33-36 justification only says "may" not "is"

What am I missing here?

[Ben DiFabbio]

I don't understand why this is A. Isn't D substantiated by lines 55-56? For A, the 33-36 justification only says "may" not "is"

What am I missing here?

Hi Deck,

I can see how the author's use of "may" in the phrase "there may be some truth to the view that [...]" (32-22) seems not to preclude the possibility that there isn't any truth to the view at all. However, it is clear from the argumentative structure of the sentence "Although there may be some truth in the view that Rembrandt was an entrepreneur who made some aesthetic decisions on the basis of what he knew the market wanted, [...]" that the author is accepting Alpers' claim as a counter-premise to the author's argument, which is the second half of that sentence: "[...] Alpers’ emphasis on economic factors sacrifices discussion of the aesthetic qualities that make Rembrandt’s work unique."

The counter-premise offered here would be the thing the author and Alpers would be most likely to agree on.

The problem with (D) is that, for it to be a probable point of agreement between the author and Alpers, they would both need to have an express opinion on the question of whether certain aspects of Rembrandt’s art result from his experimentation with different painting techniques. I don't see that substantiated in 55-56.

I hope that helps!

- Ben DiFabbio
PowerScore LSAT Instructor