PrepTest 118

Incorrect. The Reviewer doesn't make any judgments as to whether historians should be objective or apply a scientific model of objectivity. She limits her discussion as to whether this model is actually applied by historians, not whether it "should" be.

Incorrect. The instances provided are of historians who are demonstrating bias, so they don't run counter to the point she's trying to make about rejecting claims of objectivity in historical writing.

Incorrect. The debate is over whether the historians are objective and unbiased, not whether they intend to be.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Errors in Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
Many historians claim to be unbiased, but there are plenty of historical writings that are biased, so these historians are wrong.

Answer Anticipation:
The author here rejects the claims of "[m]any historians" of being unbiased based on the ability to find instances of bias in historical writing. However, even if it is "easy" to find these instances, it's not established that they are written by those who are claiming objectivity. Both of these statements are only talking about a subset of the overall examples—some historians, some historical writings. The Reviewer is assuming that some of the instances of biased historical writing are done by those who claim objectivity, so the correct answer should highlight the fact that these groups don't necessarily overlap.

Answer Explanation:
This answer choice highlights that the counterexamples brought up by the Reviewer might not overlap with the historians who claim to be objective. If the "easy to find" instances of biased historical writing are from historians who don't claim objectivity, then the Reviewer's use of them to disprove a viewpoint is off.

Key Takeaway:
Counterexamples can be used to disprove a viewpoint, but those counterexamples have to actually apply to the situation that is being debated. In this argument, it was never established that the biased writing was done by the same historians who claimed to be unbiased—a necessary part of showing that we should reject their claims.

Incorrect. The argument establishes that the "easy to find" examples are false, so this answer doesn't address the details of the argument.