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Difficulty: Very hardAppeal Fallacies (Authority, Emotion, Majority)

Editorial: The city should not approve the proposed high-density housing development. It is true that urban planners claim it will alleviate the housing shortage, but consider the perspective of Arthur Pendelton, the globally celebrated maestro of the city's symphony orchestra. Pendelton has argued passionately that such dense developments stifle the creative spirit of a community. Given his unparalleled mastery in harmonizing diverse elements into a beautiful whole, we should heed his warning and halt the project.

Which one of the following arguments is most similar in its flawed reasoning to the argument in the editorial?

  1. The new dietary guidelines must be rejected. While nutritionists support them, they are opposed by Elena Rostova, a champion chess grandmaster. Rostova asserts that the guidelines lack strategic foresight, and since chess requires the ultimate in strategic planning, her assessment of the guidelines' flaws should be trusted.Answer
  2. B
    The city's plan to harmonize the architectural styles of the downtown district will fail. The lead architect lacks a harmonious personal life, having recently been involved in a contentious legal dispute. Someone who cannot maintain harmony in their own affairs cannot possibly design a harmonious public space.
  3. C
    The proposed housing development will be exceptionally beautiful. The development firm has hired five independent designers, each of whom has won prestigious awards for creating the most aesthetically pleasing single-family homes in the country. Therefore, the sprawling complex they design together will be an aesthetic masterpiece.
  4. D
    The city must halt the high-density housing project immediately. Doing so will cost millions in lost investments, but the development would require demolishing the historic community center. That center is the heart of this neighborhood, and destroying it would crush the spirits of the longtime residents who gathered there for decades.
  5. E
    High-density housing developments do not actually alleviate housing shortages. A recent study of fifty major cities found that those with the highest concentration of high-density housing also have the most severe housing shortages. Clearly, building dense developments exacerbates the problem it intends to solve.

Answer

The argument that rejects dietary guidelines based on the opinion of a chess grandmaster.
The editorial's argument concludes that a housing project should be halted based on the opinion of a symphony maestro. This is a classic appeal to an unqualified authority: it relies on an expert in one field (music) to make a judgment about an unrelated field (urban planning). Crucially, it attempts to justify this reliance through a superficial, metaphorical connection between the two fields (the ability to 'harmonize'). The correct answer perfectly mirrors this exact flawed structure: it rejects dietary guidelines (nutrition) based on the opinion of a chess grandmaster (unrelated field), attempting to justify the reliance with a metaphorical connection ('strategic planning').

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the editorial's argument structure.
Conclusion: The city should halt the housing project. Premise: A celebrated symphony maestro opposes it because it stifles creativity, and he is an expert at 'harmonizing diverse elements'.
Deconstructing the components of the argument is the mandatory first step in solving a parallel reasoning question.
2
Identify the specific logical flaw committed in the argument.
The argument commits an appeal to an unqualified authority.
The author relies on the opinion of a music expert to make a judgment on urban planning, attempting to bridge the gap with a metaphorical similarity ('harmonizing').
3
Create an abstract pattern of the flawed reasoning to match against the options.
Pattern: Reject a proposal based on the opinion of an expert in an unrelated field, justifying this reliance by citing a superficial or metaphorical similarity between the expert's actual field and the field in question.
An accurate abstraction ensures the evaluation of the logical structure of the choices rather than their superficial subject matter.
4
Evaluate the answer choices to find the one matching the abstract pattern.
The choice involving the chess grandmaster perfectly matches: it rejects a dietary proposal using a chess expert, justifying it with the metaphorical link of 'strategic planning'.
Parallel flaw questions require a strict structural match of the core reasoning error.

Key Concept

Appeal to Unqualified Authority (Parallel Flaw)
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Topics

Appeal Fallacies (Authority, Emotion, Majority)

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