Q4 - In his book, published in 1892

[demetri.blaisdell]

Your first introduction to intellectual property law. For a weaken question, we start with the argument core:

Grey used the same unusual metaphor that Jordan used in a book published earlier + They couldn't both have invented it ---> Grey read Jordan's book

What's the gap? Well what if they both plagiarized the metaphor from a third author? You get that in (A). If they both independently stole it, there's no reason to believe that Jordan read Grey's book.

Wrong answers:

(B) is irrelevant. We have to come up with another explanation as to how Grey heard about the metaphor. The fact that Grey is using the unusual metaphor in a new way doesn't explain where she got it.

(C) is even more irrelevant. We're worried with where the metaphor came from, not who the books were written for.

(D) does nothing to the argument. Jordan re-using the metaphor doesn't explain where Grey got it.

(E) confuses the issue. The fact that Grey was generally more creative doesn't answer whether Grey stole this particular unusual metaphor.

I hope this helps. If you still have questions after reading this, post away!

Demetri

[sweetygurl]

Hi, I got his question right.

But if this were a FLAW question instead of a weaken question, would the flaw be "failing to consider other alternatives"?

What would you say that the flaw was?

Anyone?

[tommywallach]

Hey Sweetygurl,

Always good to look for the assumption/flaw, though I wouldn't ever spend too long imagining hypothetical extensions to preexisting questions!

Conclusion: Grey probably read Jordan's book.
Premise: They both use the same weird metaphor, and Jordan's book came first.

Assumptions: 1) They didn't both get it from somewhere else. 2) They didn't simply think of it independently. 3) Grey didn't read the quote in a review of Jordan's work, or hear about it from someone else who read it (in other words, he could have stolen the metaphor without actually reading the book).

Any of these could conceivably be the assumption, and there's a flaw associated with all three. And "find the flaw" question could hit up any of these, though usually those questions only have ONE or maybe TWO flaws, so it's a little easier to locate. : )

Hope that helps!

-t