Town Representative: The new advertisements protesting plans by the

Question

Town Representative: The new advertisements protesting plans by the town to build a new pier for large cruise ships have been appearing daily. The advertisements claim that the new pier will bring in more cruise ships and ruin the quaint charm of the town. However, these claims can be dismissed. Most of these advertisements were paid for by a major developer who currently profits greatly from allowing cruise ships to offload passengers at his property when they anchor in the nearby bay.

Which of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the town representative’s argument?

A. It focuses on the motivations for the people making a particular claim without considering the motivations of other people making the same claim.
B. It directly attacks the merits of the claims made in the advertisements but does not provide evidence to support the opposing view.
C. It mischaracterizes the views put forth in the advertisements and then directly attacks these mischaracterized views.
D. It rejects a claim by addressing the motivations for the people making it rather than by addressing its actual merits.
E. It fails to consider the possibility that some of these advertisements were paid for by town advocates with legitimate concerns on the effects of cruise ships.

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chandy123 · Answer

The argument made by the town representative dismisses the claims in the advertisements (that the new pier will ruin the town’s charm) by focusing solely on the motivations of the developer funding the advertisements. This is an ad hominem fallacy, where an argument is dismissed based on the characteristics or motivations of the person making the claim, rather than evaluating the claim itself.
 • Option A: Incorrect. The argument does not compare motivations between different groups of people making the same claim; it focuses on the motivations of one developer funding the advertisements.
 • Option B: Incorrect. The representative does not attack the merits of the claims directly, nor does the argument provide evidence to counter the advertisements’ claims.
 • Option C: Incorrect. The argument does not mischaracterize the claims made in the advertisements; it acknowledges them but dismisses them based on the developer’s motivations.
 • Option D: Correct. This option accurately identifies the flaw: the argument dismisses the claim by attacking the motivations of the developer funding the advertisements, without addressing whether the claim about the pier ruining the town’s charm is valid.
 • Option E: Incorrect. While it may be true that other advertisements could come from different sources, this is not the central flaw in the town representative’s argument.

Thus, D best describes the flaw in the reasoning.

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

For this type of “describe the flaw” method of reasoning question, you should first attack the argument to find flaws on your own and then decide which answer choice properly describes one of them. In analyzing the Town Representatives argument, you should notice that he does not actually address the specific claims made in the advertisements. Rather he just questions the motivations behind the claims. What if indeed the new cruise ship pier WILL bring in more cruise ships and ruin the charm of the town, but the ads are being paid for by a developer with questionable motivations. Then can the claims really be dismissed? This flaw is described perfectly by answer choice (D) as the representative only addresses the motivations but not the claims themselves. For (A), the argument does focus on the motivations but the issue is NOT that it isn’t considering the motivations of other people – the issue is that it does not address the claims. For (B) the argument specifically does not attack the merits of the claim so this is clearly incorrect and for (C) it is not mischaracterizing the views. For (E), the argument does not fail to consider this possibility as it only says “most of advertisements” were paid for by a developer. The argument acknowledges there are other ads paid by different people but is just emphasizing that most come from this person.  Correct answer is (D).

Akarsh97 · Answer

While checking the options chronologically option A striked better than D but then option E was too similar to A. So i chose D but still not able to find the problem in option A or E.

vineet6316 · Answer

As for  Choice (A):  The flaw isn't about failing to consider other people's motivations. The representative's argument is flawed regardless of who else is involved. The error is a “ type of reasoning” , not a lack of it. The representative uses the developer's financial interest as a reason to dismiss the claims, which is an invalid connection. The representative dismisses the argument because of  who  is making it, not because of a lack of supporting evidence for the claim itself. The argument's weakness is internal and doesn't depend on outside information.

The  choice (E)  choice is very similar to A in that it proposes a possibility that the representative didn't consider, but it doesn't accurately describe the  logical flaw  in the argument as it stands. It just suggests an alternative scenario. The representative's argument is already fallacious. It rejects the claims based on who made them. The argument would be equally flawed even if the developer was the sole person paying for the ads. The representative's reasoning is weak on its own, regardless of who else might be involved.

The  correct answer (D)  accurately pinpoints this fundamental flaw:  "the rejection of a claim by attacking the source's motivation rather than the claim's merits. "

Town Representative: The new advertisements protesting plans by the

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Town Representative: The new advertisements protesting plans by the

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