[az780]

The senator has long held to the general principle that no true work of art is obscene, and thus that there is no conflict between the need to encourage free artistic expression and the need to protect the sensibilities of the public from obscenity. When well-known works generally viewed as obscene are cited as possible counterexamples, the senator justifies accepting the principle by saying that if these works really are obscene then they cannot be works of art.
The senator’s reasoning contains which one of the following errors?
(A) It seeks to persuade by emotional rather than intellectual means.
(B) It contains an implicit contradiction.
(C) It relies on an assertion of the senator’s authority.
(D) It assumes what it seeks to establish.
(E) It attempts to justify a position by appeal to an irrelevant consideration.

[kevin]

By rejecting possible counterexamples on the grounds that they cannot be works of art if they are obscene, the senator assumes what he claims to be true.