#Method of reasoning
Question
Walter: A copy of an artwork should be worth exactly what the original is worth if the two works are visually indistinguishable. After all, if the two works are visually indistinguishable, they have all the same qualities, and if they have all the same qualities, their prices should be equal.
Marissa: How little you understand art! Even if someone could make a perfect copy that is visually indistinguishable from the original, the copy would have a different history and hence not have all the same qualities as the original.
Which of the following is a point at issue between Walter and Marissa?
(Because of copyrights, the complete official question is not copied here. You can access the question here: GMAT Club)
Difficulty: Medium
Accuracy: 65%
Based on: 1197 sessions
Solution
The Story
Walter: A copy of an artwork should be worth exactly what the original is worth if the two works are visually indistinguishable. – Walter says that if an artwork and its copy are visually indistinguishable, they should be worth exactly the same. (Really? Sounds counterintuitive. Consumers usually attach a value to ’originality’ as well, and not just the visual appearance. I understand very little about NFT’s. But, by this logic, it seems there should not be any market for NFT’s. Let’s see. Perhaps Walter will give reason(s) for why he believes so.)
After all, if the two works are visually indistinguishable, they have all the same qualities, and if they have all the same qualities, their prices should be equal. – Hmm. Walter does give a reason here.
Visually indistinguishable = All the same qualities*
All the same qualities = Prices should be equal
(*I’m thinking consumers usually attach a value to non-visual as well – such as who was the artist. So, I’m not entirely convinced by Walter’s logic here.)
Marissa: How little you understand art! – It seems that Marissa doesn’t agree with Walter’s logic.
Even if someone could make a perfect copy that is visually indistinguishable from the original, the copy would have a different history and hence not have all the same qualities as the original. – Marissa talks about ’history of artwork’. She implies that history of the artwork is also a quality of the artwork. Since the history of an original artwork and its copy would not be the same, even if two pieces of artwork are visually indistinguishable, they do not have all the same qualities. (This is in line with what we thought of earlier. Basically, artwork could have non-visual qualities too.)
Question Stem
Marissa uses which of the following techniques in attempting to refute Walter’s argument?Â
What is Walter’s argument? If two pieces of artwork are visually the same, they have all the same qualities. If two pieces of artwork have all the same qualities, their prices should be equal. That’s why a copy of an artwork should be worth exactly the same as the original as long as they are visually the same (main point).
Marissa does refute Walter’s argument.
How does she do it?
By pointing out that there are non-visual elements (artwork’s history) of ‘quality of artwork’ too.
I’ll look for an answer choice that highlights this aspect.
Answer choice analysis
Answer Choice: A
Incorrect
Selected by: 4%
Our objective is very specific: How does Marissa refute Walter’s argument. Our objective is not to simply find a flaw in Walter’s argument. Walter’s argument is based on the assumption that links ‘equal price’ with ‘equal worth’.
However, Marissa isn’t concerned about this point. In her rebuttal, she highlights how ‘visually indistinguishable’ doesn’t imply ‘all the same qualities’. She doesn’t get into price and worth.
Answer Choice: B
Correct
Selected by: 65%
Let’s break down this answer choice.
‘the conclusion’: This means Walter’s conclusion. His conclusion is that ‘a copy of an artwork should be worth exactly what the original is worth if the two works are visually indistinguishable’.
On what claims is the conclusion based?
1. If two pieces of artwork are visually the same, they have all the same qualities.
2. If two pieces of artwork have all the same qualities, their prices should be equal.
Does Marissa undermine one of these claims?
Yes, she does.
She highlights that even if two pieces of artwork are visually the same, they will still have different history, and hence they will not have all the same qualities. (She undermines the first claim mentioned above.)
This answer choice is correct.
Answer Choice: C
Incorrect
Selected by: 2%
Marissa doesn’t get into whether a perfect copy would be visually indistinguishable. In fact, in her rebuttal she mentions “Even if someone could make a perfect copy that is visually indistinguishable from the original …”. So, she grants Walter that a perfect copy could be visually indistinguishable.
Answer Choice: D
Incorrect
Selected by: 25%
This one is the most commonly selected incorrect answer choice on GMAT Club. Let’s break down the statement.
Does Marissa give a reason to believe that Walter is unable to judge the quality of a work of art?
I believe she does. Marissa highlights how there are non-visual qualities of artwork too (its history). Based on that, I do get a reason to believe that Walter is unable to judge the quality of a work of art.
So, actually, I’m fine with this answer choice thus far.
Let’s continue now.
Does Marissa indicate that Walter isn’t able to judge the quality of artwork “because of his inadequate understanding of the history of art“?
Nope.
Marissa doesn’t question Walter’s understanding of the history of art. Rather, she points out how Walter has altogether ignored the history of art in determining qualities and thereby the price and worth of artwork.
Based on what Marissa said, we can understand that Walter doesn’t consider artwork’s history a quality of artwork. However, we don’t learn anything about whether Walter understands the history and whether that understanding is inadequate. It is very much possible that Walter has adequate understanding of the history of art, but he doesn’t believe that history is a quality of artwork and that it should impact its price.
Answer Choice: E
Incorrect
Selected by: 5%
Nope. She never gets into criteria for determining visual indistinguishness (is that even a word?). She doesn’t propose any alternative criteria for this.
If you have any doubts regarding any part of this solution, please feel free to ask in the comments section.
Anish Passi
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