PrepTest 24, Section 3, Question 4
M: The Greek alphabet must have been invented by some individual who knew the Phoenician writing system and who wanted to have some way of recording Homeric epics and thereby preserving expressions of a highly developed tradition of oral poetry.
M: The Greek alphabet must have been invented by some individual who knew the Phoenician writing system and who wanted to have some way of recording Homeric epics and thereby preserving expressions of a highly developed tradition of oral poetry.
P: Your hypothesis is laughable! What would have been the point of such a person's writing Homeric epics down? Surely a person who knew them well enough to write them down would not need to read them; and no one else could read them, according to your hypothesis.
M: The Greek alphabet must have been invented by some individual who knew the Phoenician writing system and who wanted to have some way of recording Homeric epics and thereby preserving expressions of a highly developed tradition of oral poetry.
P: Your hypothesis is laughable! What would have been the point of such a person's writing Homeric epics down? Surely a person who knew them well enough to write them down would not need to read them; and no one else could read them, according to your hypothesis.
M: The Greek alphabet must have been invented by some individual who knew the Phoenician writing system and who wanted to have some way of recording Homeric epics and thereby preserving expressions of a highly developed tradition of oral poetry.
P's argument is vulnerable to which one of the following criticisms?
It fails to demonstrate that the Phoenician alphabet alone could have provided the basis for the Greek alphabet.
It incorrectly assumes that the first text ever written in Greek was a Homeric poem.
It confuses the requirements for a complex oral tradition with the requirements of a written language.
It attempts to demonstrate the truth of a hypothesis merely by showing that it is possible.
It overlooks the possibility that the person who invented the Greek alphabet did so with the intention of teaching it to others.
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