Q16 - Numerous paintings and engravings

[stacksdoe]

Is C the correct answer, right?
This was a tough one for me, I went between C and E for a bit. I even tried the Denial Test, and actually led me to E. Anywho, I actually was on here keying down E as the correct answer when I looked again, I realized that C has to be it. If C is not true, then the whole argument is broken, i.e. the main conclusion is invalid if C is not true.

Any feed back?

[ohthatpatrick]

Yes, (C) is the answer.

Task: Necessary Assumption

Argument Core:

CONCLUSION
the invention/adoption of agricultural society led to the first instances of war

EVIDENCE
the first paintings/engravings depicting war occurred at the same time as the invention/adoption of agricultural society
+
(everybody had this type of paintings/engravings at that point)

ANALYSIS
When you boil down the argument core to its "near-match" ideas, the author is basically saying
SINCE first paintings/engravings of war occurred at Time X
MUST BE first war occurred at Time X

Sure, that could be true. It could also be true that war existed long before people first started painting/engraving pictures of war.

(A) "dominant' is extreme and unnecessary. Who cares what the #1 form of artistic expression was?

(B) "always" is extreme. This has some appeal. The author definitely thinks that transitioning to agricultural society resulted in the first instances of war. But he hasn't committed himself to saying that EVERY instance of war during that period was based on agricultural disputes.

(C) Sure, this sounds pretty good. The author thinks "first painting/engraving of war = first instance of war". So that's pretty equivalent to saying what (C) is saying. And we can verify this answer is correct by seeing if the Negation of it ruins the argument.

If "there WERE instances of war PRIOR to the first paintings/engravings", then there were instances of war PRIOR to the transition to agricultural society. That would contradict the Conclusion, so (C) looks great!

(D) "inevitable" is too strong. The author doesn't need to believe that every civilization results in war. He's' only saying that the FIRST instances of war resulted from inventing/adopting an AGRICULTURAL form of civilization.

(E) We were never talking about paintings/engravings of AGRICULTURE. That's totally out of scope and irrelevant to the argument core:
first PAINTINGS/ENGRAVINGS of war --> first INSTANCES of war

Hope this helps.