A museum directors, in order to finance expensive new acquisitions, di

Question

A museum directors, in order to finance expensive new acquisitions, discreetly sold some paintings by major artists. All of them were paintings that the director privately considered inferior. Critics roundly condemned the sale, charging that the museum had lost first-rate pieces, thereby violating its duty as a trustee of art for future generations. A few months after being sold by the museum, those paintings were resold, in an otherwise stagnant art market, at two to three times the prices paid to the museum. Clearly, these prices settle the issue, since they demonstrate the correctness of the critics’ evaluation.

The reasoning in the argument is vulnerable to the criticism that the argument does which one of the following?

(A) It concludes that a certain opinion is correct on the grounds that it is held by more people than hold the opposing views.

(B) It rejects the judgment of the experts in an area in which there is no better guide to the truth than expert judgment.

(C) It rejects a proven means of accomplishing an objective without offering any alternative means of accomplishing that objective.

(D) It bases a firm conclusion about a state of affairs in the present on somewhat speculative claims about a future state of affairs.

(E) It bases its conclusion on facts that could, in the given situation, have resulted from causes other than those presupposed by the argument.

christoph · Answer

E) It bases its conclusion (higher prices give the critics right) on facts (critics evaluation) that could, in the given situation, have resulted from causes other (painter bought his painting back despite the evaluation of the critics) than those presupposed by the argument.

A) is out because we dont know how many take an opposing view and how many prefer the opinion. we know that that there are some critics (how many ???) and there is a director, but maybe some people share the view of the director.

banerjeea_98 · Answer

"E" is best. Just becose something turned out to be as predicted doesn't tell us that the original argument was valid. There may have been other causes for the director to sell those arts.

Economiser · Answer

E it is..

Conclusion - The museum pieces sold were first-rate
Facts - It sold at thrice the prices sold by the museum director.

But then the museum pieces could have sold at a higher price bcoz of 
other reasons...(speculation is a good one!) and not bcoz the pieces were
of the best quality.

A is wrong coz the argument doesn't mention anything about the buyer's opinion about the museum pieces. It just says that the museum pieces
sold for 3 times the previous price.

kelloggcookiemonster · Answer

I understand that (E) is correct, but I don't understand why (D) is incorrect. The argument does appear to rely on "somewhat speculative claims about a future state of affairs" since the high prices were settled at a time later than when the "experts" remark that the museum had lost first-rate pieces.

sahibr · Answer

Argument is fairly simple.

A museum director wanted more funds to buy more museum stuff. But he didnt have the funds. To get funds, he went ahead and sold a few of his products without seeking advice or opinions of others. The products that were sold in his opinion were more inferior to his other products and hence he thought he would get away with it.

The critics got to know. Critics became crazy. Said the director was stupid and sold the most important pieces in the gallery.

Later those same pieces were again sold at a higher price to other guys in the market.

Press became further crazy because their claims that the director was stupid had now more ammo.

Question: reasoning in the argument is vulnerable to the criticism that the argument does which one of the following?

Dumbing the question down:  between the options given below, which option best describes the course of action taken by the critics?

Option A: (A) It concludes that a certain opinion is correct on the grounds that it is held by more people than hold the opposing views.

The argument does conclude that an earlier opinion was correct. But does it come to conclusion using new market figures that have come up or using the opinions of other people.
It uses market figures. Hence A is out.

(B) It rejects the judgment of the experts in an area in which there is no better guide to the truth than expert judgment. 
 
It does reject the judgement of experts. But is there a better guide to the truth?
Yes there is. The director sold the products DISCREETLY. That means there were other experts whose opinion he could have sought.

Hence B is out.

(C) It rejects a proven means of accomplishing an objective without offering any alternative means of accomplishing that objective. 
Irrelevant.
The objective is gathering funds
The critics do not care about the gathered funds. The critics care about the sold pieces.

(D) It bases a firm conclusion about a state of affairs in the present on somewhat speculative claims about a future state of affairs. 
Irrelevant.
The critics have based a firm conclusion on the present state of affairs using support from past state of affairs.
They havent speculated anything.

(E) It bases its conclusion on facts that could, in the given situation, have resulted from causes other than those presupposed by the argument. 
This is correct.

In option E, the critics who are making the argument base their argument on market figures. There could have been other reasons why the paintings on the market sold much higher. Maybe the purchaser did not have enough money to buy the painting when it was first on sale and now he does. Maybe the time when the paintings were first sold by the museum could have been a time of economic recession. There could be n number of reasons.

Ritwick91 · Answer

Can anybody please explain the QUESTION in details? I am unable to understand the question itself.

anothermillenial · Answer

Ritwick91  Happy to help.

The reasoning in the argument is vulnerable to the criticism that the argument does which one of the following?

The background context of this argument is:

Museum directors need money so they sold the "not so great" paintings.
  Critics were mad about this move, saying they lost "first-rate pieces".
  Painting got resold "at two to three times the price paid" (Oh, sounds the critics are going to equate price to quality!)
  CLEARLY, "prices settle the issue".

The question stem asks us to ATTACK the "reasoning in the argument." What does the argument say? The critic’s argue that because the resale price of this art was super higher, therefore, their evaluation of that art as “first-rate” must be true. Their faulty belief/conclusion is  price is indicative of quality . A flaw in this reasoning is that the critics assume is the cause and effect relationship. If this was a weaken question, a possible answer choice would likely be an “incomplete information answer” or one that sheds evidence that price doesn’t indicate quality. Or that shares the possibility that art prices are heavily influenced by the economy.

This answer choice tells us that popular opinions are correct. We don’t know if the critics outnumber of the directors. Also, we are certain this is a causality error!

Is museum director or the critic the expert judgement? Hm, are we sure there is “no better guide”?

There was not objective to be accomplished.

We never discussed a present v. future state of affairs.

Ah, this sounds like our pre-think. Yes, what if the market influences prices?

Akshat181519 · Answer

so even i was a bit stuck between D AND E but the word speculation is bothering me as in the pssg. it states that it was sold at a higher rate and it i could be wrong here but while putting D there will be many variables also then i marked D. 
hope this hepls

unraveled · Answer

A museum directors, in order to finance expensive new acquisitions, discreetly sold some paintings by major artists. All of them were paintings that the director privately considered inferior. Critics roundly condemned the sale, charging that the museum had lost first-rate pieces, thereby violating its duty as a trustee of art for future generations. A few months after being sold by the museum, those paintings were resold, in an otherwise stagnant art market, at two to three times the prices paid to the museum. Clearly, these prices settle the issue, since they demonstrate the correctness of the critics’ evaluation.

The reasoning in the argument is vulnerable to the criticism that the argument does which one of the following?

(A) It concludes that a certain opinion is correct on the grounds that it is  held by more people than hold the opposing views . - WRONG. Not held by more people neither it is said to hold opposing views.

(B) It  rejects  the judgment of the experts in an area in which there is no better guide to the truth than expert judgment. - WRONG. Opposite to what it did and also the reasoning offered here is wrong.

(C) It  rejects  a proven means of accomplishing an objective without offering any alternative means of accomplishing that objective. - WRONG. Like B only.

(D) It bases a firm conclusion about a state of affairs in the present on somewhat  speculative claims about a future state of affairs . - WRONG. Both speculation and future state of affairs is wrong.

(E) It bases its conclusion on facts that could, in the given situation, have  resulted from causes other than those presupposed by the argument . - CORRECT. The claim's reasoning is not necessarily true. Being sold at 2-3 times does not makes critics' argument correct. Though even POE helps.

The passage is easy to understand but the options make it difficult.

Answer E.

A museum directors, in order to finance expensive new acquisitions, di

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A museum directors, in order to finance expensive new acquisitions, di

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