People who have political power tend to see new technologies

Question

People who have political power tend to see new technologies as a means of extending or protecting their power, whereas they generally see new ethical arguments and ideas as a threat to it. Therefore, technical ingenuity usually brings benefits to those who have this ingenuity, whereas ethical inventiveness brings only pain to those who have this inventiveness.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) Those who offer new ways of justifying current political power often reap the benefits of their own innovations.

(B) Politically powerful people tend to reward those who they believe are useful to them and to punish those who they believe are a threat.

(C) Ethical inventiveness and technical ingenuity are never possessed by the same individuals

(D) New technologies are often used by people who strive to defeat those who currently have political power.

(E) Many people who possess ethical inventiveness conceal their novel ethical arguments for fear of retribution by the politically powerful.

Narenn · Accepted Answer

Question 1
 Answer Should be B 
 
Analysis

Premise - People with political power accepts new technologies to protect/extend their political powers and discard new ideas/ethical arguments that may pose threat to their political powers

Conclusion - Those who have technical ingenuity always benefits by that and those who have wthical inventiveness feel pain by that

There is a logical gap between premise and conclusion. Premise suggests that Politicians tend to adopt new technologies and they tend to discard new ethics. If we establish that they support those who help them adopt new technologies and weaken those who create threat to their political powers then we can safely conclude that People with technical ingenuity gets benefited and People with ethical inventiveness had to sustain pain.

The Choice that establishes this fact would be correct here.

A) Incorrect - This choice only restates the half part of conclusion. It does not reveal that whether the benefit comes from Political side. Moreover it does not comment on Ethical Arguments

B) Correct - This choice perfectly connects the premise with conclusion. Politicians tend to accept new technologies to protect their power - They reward those who offer them new technologies - Therefore the people who offer new technologies get the benefit of this ingenuity.

C) Out of scope. Whether these characteristics are possessed by few indivisuals is not as issue here.

D) Incorrect - This choice infact weakens the conclusion

E) Incorrect - This choice is only comment on half part of the stimulus. i.e. Ethical Inventiveness

Regards,

Narenn

doe007 · Answer

Explanation:

Points found from the argument are:
1) People with political power consider new technologies favorable and they treat new ethical ideas as threat.
2) Technical ingenuity brings benefits to those who have this ingenuity.
3) Ethical inventiveness brings only pain to those who have this inventiveness.

From these points, we can see that
(i) “Technical ingenuity is favorable to politically powerful people” and “people with technical ingenuity are benefited” could be correlated.
(ii) “Ethical arguments are threats to politically powerful people” and “people with ethical inventiveness are mistreated” could be correlated.
(iii) Common factor in the above two points is “politically powerful people”.

A) This statement has nothing to do with the conclusion of the argument. Wrong.
B) Correct. This statement clearly links the points (1), (ii), and (iii) above, and thus the statement strengthens the argument.
C) This statement may or may not be true. However, this statement has nothing to do with the conclusion of the argument. Wrong.
D) This statement does not affect the conclusion of the argument. Wrong.
E) This statement may or may not be true. But, this statement does not affect the conclusion of the argument. If the people hide their ethical inventiveness, they would not get pain through their ethical inventiveness. Wrong.

Correct Answer is B.

nightblade354 · Answer

I struggled between (B) and (C), but here is why (C) is wrong.

People who have political power tend to see new technologies as a means of extending or protecting their power, whereas they generally see new ethical arguments and ideas as a threat to it. Therefore, technical ingenuity  usually brings  benefits to those who have this ingenuity, whereas ethical inventiveness  brings only  pain to those who have this inventiveness.

(C) Ethical inventiveness and technical ingenuity are  never  possessed by the same individuals. -- The argument leaves room that someone can have both and be punished for it. If the argument said 'only brings' instead of 'usually brings', then this answer would be 100% correct.

chesstitans · Answer

the trick here is to keep eyes on the flow of the logic.
The logic is either political figures use technology to extend their power or smart people use technology for good things.
B is the right answer.

nightblade354 · Answer

I disagree with your conclusion, Titan. I'm not criticizing, I am just curious how you came to your conclusion.

The flow, to me, goes like this: Political power --- reward technology (benefit to me as a political figure) ----- punish ethical arguments (threat to me as a political figure)
Where does it say smart people will use the technology for good?

People who have political power tend to see new technologies as a means of extending or protecting their power, whereas they generally see new ethical arguments and ideas as a threat to it. Therefore, technical ingenuity usually brings benefits to those who have this ingenuity, whereas ethical inventiveness brings only pain to those who have this inventiveness

chesstitans · Answer

"technical ingenuity usually brings benefits to those who have this ingenuity,"
That is how I understand this sentence, so perhaps, I must have wrongly interpreted the word "ingenuity", this word should have the meaning of decency.

nightblade354 · Answer

To me, this meant the political figures will give them the benefits (I was picturing a totalitarian dictatorship). But you may be right, and it is an interesting way to approach the question. Either way, we both got it right!

kornn · Answer

Dear  nightblade354   VeritasKarishma   IanStewart ,

Is  ethical inventiveness   brings ONLY   pain to those who have this inventiveness.  the same thing as  ethical inventiveness   ONLY brings   pain to those who have this inventiveness. ? (I just flipped the positions of the 2 words)

Could you please explain the difference between those two? 
I am still a bit confused why choice C. is incorrect.

Thank you!

nightblade354 · Answer

varotkorn , the positioning of the wording does not matter in this case. Either way, they signify a necessary condition of pain to others.

Posted from my mobile device

IanStewart · Answer

This question is not at all like a real GMAT CR question (though it is similar to some LSAT problems). For one thing, GMAT CR questions don't include these types of sweeping, abstract and unverifiable claims ("People who have political power tend to see new technologies as a means of extending or protecting their power"). They instead include concrete scientific or historical facts.

But more importantly, real GMAT CR questions that ask you to strengthen an argument typically actually present an argument. The stem here is not an argument at all; there is no relationship between the first sentence and the second. The first talks about what "people who have power" think, while the conclusion talks about what people who have "technical ingenuity" and "ethical inventiveness" (I can't even guess what that phrase could mean) experience. Those aren't the same people, so there's no connection between the people mentioned in the first sentence and those in the second. The argument, as written, is a pure non sequitur. It only becomes an argument at all if we can connect the beliefs of those with power to the experiences of those with technical or ethical ingenuity. Only answer B does that, so it's the right answer.

KarishmaB · Answer

Responding to a pm:

Politically powerful people consider new tech helpful but new ethical args threatening. 
Conclusion: So tech creators benefit while ethics creators suffer. (that is the gist using simpler words)

We need to strengthen this:

(A) Those who offer new ways of justifying current political power often reap the benefits of their own innovations.

'Justifying' current political power is irrelevant to our argument.

(B) Politically powerful people tend to reward those who they believe are useful to them and to punish those who they believe are a threat.

The argument doesn't say how the belief system of politically powerful people actually impacts. How do we establish that tech creators benefit while ethics creators suffer? Just because politically powerful people consider new tech useful but new ethics threatening, how does that convert into benefit for tech creators and suffering for ethics creators? The options tells us what politically powerful people take action as per their belief system. They reward what they consider beneficial and punish what they consider a threat. Then it helps say that tech creators benefit and ethics creators suffer.

(C) Ethical inventiveness and technical ingenuity are never possessed by the same individuals

It doesn't matter either way. Technical ingenuity will bring benefit only when the people possessing it apply it and same goes for ethical inventiveness. Even if same individual possesses both, when this individual shows tech ingenuity, he benefits and when he shows ethical inventiveness, he suffers.

(D) New technologies are often used by people who strive to defeat those who currently have political power.

People who strive to defeat those with political power are irrelevant.

(E) Many people who possess ethical inventiveness conceal their novel ethical arguments for fear of retribution by the politically powerful.

The argument deals with new tech and ethical arguments so we are concerned with those who apply their ingenuity and inventiveness. Those who conceal are irrelevant.

Answer (B)

pk14y · Answer

I think C is the answer. If you kind of negate this, than this becomes some people have both. When you look at the conclusion, it states: "technical ingenuity usually brings benefits to those who have this ingenuity, whereas ethical inventiveness brings only pain to those who have this inventiveness." If a person has both, how can reap the benefits, while also "only" gain pain. This is a bit of a confusing question.

People who have political power tend to see new technologies

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People who have political power tend to see new technologies

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