PrepTest 148, Section 3, Question 12
Humans' emotional tendencies are essentially unchanged from those(32 more words not shown)
The argument depends on assuming(5 more words not shown)
- AHumans have undergone(9 more words not shown)
- BHumans who make(9 more words not shown)
- CHuman history cannot(15 more words not shown)
- DRegardless of the(15 more words not shown)
- EHumans would now(22 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The same emotions don't have to produce the same choices. What if we have better information?
Imagine enjoying a pile of doughnuts but remembering that eating too many will make you feel sick. You could still have the same appetite and emotional tendencies while using what you've learned to make a better decision. Improved knowledge could matter even if the underlying emotions haven't changed.
What we’re looking for
The argument skips that possibility. It moves from essentially unchanged emotional tendencies to an inability to choose more wisely, despite the expanded range of choices technology provides. For a required assumption, I'd look for a connection making a change in those emotional tendencies necessary for wiser choices.
Working the answers
- A
The argument doesn't require humans to have stayed the same in every significant respect. People could have gained knowledge, developed new skills, or changed in other ways while their emotional tendencies remained essentially unchanged. The author needs emotional change to be necessary for wiser choices, not a claim excluding every other kind of change.
- B
Being in control of your emotions isn't the same as your emotional dispositions changing. Even if wise people generally control their emotions, we would still need to know why unchanged tendencies prevent people from choosing more wisely over time. B doesn't supply that connection.
- C
This gives a condition for learning from history. But history isn't established as the only possible source of wiser choices, and a willingness to heed it isn't the same as an essential change in emotional dispositions. The author needs a general connection between unchanged emotions and limited improvement, which this particular learning condition doesn't establish.
- D
'Emotions alone' is too strong. The author could think choices depend on both emotion and information while also thinking emotional dispositions impose a limit on how wisely we can choose. That position wouldn't require denying any role to information. The argument needs a limiting requirement, not an exclusive cause of every choice.
- ECorrect
Wiser choices require an essential change in emotional dispositions. The premise says those dispositions are essentially unchanged, so the required change hasn't occurred. That connects the evidence to the conclusion about our inability to choose more wisely. Without it, the information-based improvement we imagined could remain possible despite unchanged emotions.
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