#1 - Ullman: Plato argued that because of the harmful ways

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[gwlsathelp]

I was caught between answer choice A and E, and ultimately chose E. Why is A preferred to E?

[Frank Peter]

hi gw,

The issue with (E) is that, if you look closely, whether or not the musicians admit it isn't really the issue. The speaker in the stimulus is focused on the intent: "musicians seek not to manipulate the emotions but to create beauty." However, if we can show that having a good intention doesn't do anything to prevent the issue that Plato was concerned about, then the argument falls apart.

This is why (E) is the better answer choice. Presumably, the musicians may be intending to create beauty, but if in effect they are manipulating emotions in harmful ways, then focusing on their intent doesn't really solve the problem that Plato has raised.

[Perugrine]

The stimulus states "...musicians seek not to manipulate the emotions but to create beauty...." I immediately eliminated answer choice A because A talks about intention versus what it actually does because the stimulus talks about how musicians have a different intention for their music (to create beauty) than what it actually does (manipulate emotions). So that wasn't a flaw to me because the stimulus already considered that. Could you elaborate on why A is the correct answer choice? I ended up going with E because that wasn't something the stimulus considered.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Perugrine,

This stimulus actually contains two arguments, Plato's argument and Ullman's argument, which disagrees with Plato's argument.

It's helpful to break down this stimulus.

Plato's argument
Premise: Music can manipulate the emotions in harmful ways.
Conclusion: Societies need to put restrictions on the music their citizens hear.

Ullman's response
Premise: Musicians seek not to manipulate the emotions but to create beauty.
Conclusion: Plato's argument is misguided.

The assumption in Ullman's argument is the fact that musicians do not seek to manipulate emotions proves that their music does not manipulate emotions. That missing piece is why Ullman concludes that Plato's argument is misguided.

In other words, Ullman is using the musicians' intentions (to create beauty) to rebut Plato's claim the music can manipulate the emotions in harmful ways.

The flaw is that Ullman doesn't realize that even if musicians do not intend to manipulate people's emotions, their music may still manipulate emotions as an unintended side-effect.

[DaveWave24]

Answer choice E is the most attractive trap answer choice in my opinion. It attempts to discredit the premise about musicians' intentions. However, the stimulus is not worded as “musicians say that they do these things”, it is directly stated what the actual intention of musicians is. We don’t get to question this. This then implies that answer choice E must be referring to some other non-musician artists, which is irrelevant to our argument.

[Dana D]

Hey Dave,

Very true - we have to accept the stimulus as true, and it states that musicians seek to not manipulate emotions.

Good job!