Q21 Although many seventeenth-century broadsides

[disguise_sky]

So the conclusion is "this is no evidence that most 17th century people were serious about moral values", right?
Could anybody explain why B is correct and A and E are incorrect?
Thanks in advance!

[christine.defenbaugh]

Thanks for posting, disguise_sky!

For this strengthen question, we should first break out the argument core!

OPPOSING POINT: Most existing 17th Century broadsides were moralizing, and we know lots of people bought these
PREMISE: But we don't know WHY they bought them, or what their actual moral beliefs were
CONCLUSION: The broadsides aren't evidence that 17th Century people were super serious about morals.

So, while it might have been natural to think that if people were buying these moralizing broadsides, they must have agreed with them, but our author points out that this may not have been the case. Interestingly, the support the author uses is what we DON'T know, rather than what we know - we don't know why the people were buying the broadsides!

The best strengthener would be giving us some reason other than morals that people might have bought those broadsides. This would line up perfectly with the author's point that we don't know they were bought for moral purposes. We are only really concerns with two related things: 1) people's motivations in buying the broadsides and 2) people's moral beliefs

This is exactly what we get in (B)! If this moral content was just an afterthought to a lurid story of crime/adultery, then it raises the distinct possibility that people were buying them for the gossip and flare rather than for the tidbit of moralizing! This ultimately supports our author's conclusion that the purchasing doesn't provide evidence of strong moral beliefs.


Let's take a look at each wrong answer choice:

(A)The quality of the broadside literature doesn't really tell me much about why people buy the broadsides or what their moral beliefs are. If anything, you could argue that this weakens the argument - if the broadsides are low quality, then we know that people AREN'T buying them for that reason, and that might arguably make it slightly more likely that people are buying them for the moral sentiment. But if you make this case, this answer would be a weakener.

(C) Since we don't know whether those sermons were even purchased often, nor the motivations for people buying the sermons, this doesn't affect the argument much one way or another. It doesn't tell me anything about people's motivations or beliefs.

(D) Here we have the clergy just giving the broadsides away! While this shows a use of the broadsides that doesn't connect with the general public's morals, this doesn't tell me anything about the motivations of all those people who did actually BUY the broadsides.

(E) So the intellectuals thought broadsides were garbage, in general. Okay, but what were the intellectuals' moral beliefs? And what about the people who WERE buying the broadsides? They probably weren't well-educated, but what were their motivations? Their moral beliefs? This answer doesn't tell me any of that!

Only (B) gives us some indication that people's motivations for buying the broadsides might have been something other than for the moralizing sentiments themselves.

Please let me know if that helps to clear up your questions!