Jacob: Public funding of the arts is worthwhile for our city because publicly funded art makes the city more attractive...
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
Jacob: Public funding of the arts is worthwhile for our city because publicly funded art makes the city more attractive to new residents and businesses, thus enhancing the city's tax base.
Andrew: That argument is misguided. Art's true value lies in being a profound expression of human nature. Funding art solely in order to reach economic goals debases it by disregarding its intrinsic value.
Based on their statements, Jacob and Andrew most clearly disagree about whether
Passage Analysis:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| Jacob: Public funding of the arts is worthwhile for our city because publicly funded art makes the city more attractive to new residents and businesses, thus enhancing the city's tax base. |
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| Andrew: That argument is misguided. Art's true value lies in being a profound expression of human nature. Funding art solely in order to reach economic goals debases it by disregarding its intrinsic value. |
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Argument Flow:
This is a classic disagreement passage where two people present opposing viewpoints. Jacob starts with an economic argument for public art funding, then Andrew directly contradicts this approach by arguing that economic considerations miss the point entirely about art's true value.
Main Conclusion:
There are actually two competing conclusions here: Jacob concludes that public art funding is worthwhile because of economic benefits, while Andrew concludes that Jacob's argument is misguided because it ignores art's intrinsic value.
Logical Structure:
Jacob uses a cause-and-effect structure: public art funding → attracts residents/businesses → increases tax base → therefore worthwhile. Andrew uses a value-based counter-structure: art has intrinsic human value → economic focus degrades this value → therefore Jacob's approach is wrong.
Prethinking:
Question type:
Misc. - This is a disagreement question asking us to identify the specific point of contention between Jacob and Andrew based on their statements.
Precision of Claims
Jacob makes a claim about the worthiness of public art funding based on economic benefits (attracting residents/businesses, enhancing tax base). Andrew makes a claim about art's true value being intrinsic (expression of human nature) and criticizes economic-focused funding as debasing art.
Strategy
For disagreement questions, we need to identify what specific issue the two speakers have opposing views on. We should look for the core point where their positions directly clash. Jacob supports public funding for economic reasons, while Andrew objects to funding art 'solely for economic goals' and emphasizes art's intrinsic value. The disagreement centers on the appropriate basis or justification for public art funding.
This captures the core disagreement perfectly. Jacob believes that the potential tax base effects ARE a sufficient rationale for public funding - his entire argument is built on this economic justification being adequate reason to fund the arts. Andrew directly disputes this sufficiency by calling the argument misguided and arguing that economic goals alone debase art by ignoring its intrinsic value. We can clearly see both speakers have opposing views on whether economic benefits alone provide sufficient justification.
Both speakers would likely agree on this factual claim. Jacob states this as part of his argument, and Andrew doesn't challenge whether public funding would actually attract residents and businesses - he challenges whether this is the right reason to fund art. Andrew's objection is philosophical, not about the factual accuracy of Jacob's economic predictions.
This is too broad and doesn't capture their specific disagreement. While Andrew objects to Jacob's reasoning, he doesn't necessarily disagree that public funding might be economically worthwhile - he objects to using economic worthiness as the primary or sole justification for funding art.
Neither speaker discusses artistic quality at all. Jacob focuses on economic benefits, and Andrew focuses on respecting art's intrinsic value as human expression. The quality of the art produced isn't part of their disagreement.
This choice introduces concepts not discussed by either speaker. Neither Jacob nor Andrew talks about monetary costs being reasonable or about necessarily ignoring costs when respecting art's intrinsic value. This goes beyond what we can infer from their statements.