Theorist: To be capable of planned

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct87% picked this

   confuses a necessary condition for an organism's possessing a capacity with

   Why this is right

   We learned that a central nervous system is necessary for an organism to possess the capacity of planned locomotion. But the author is acting like a central nervous system guarantees the capacity for planned locomotion. That would look like this: central nerv sys ? planned locomotion no planned locomotion ? no central nerv sys This conditional matches the author's conclusion, but it's a backwards or negated version of the conditional relationship provided in the evidence.

   Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   87%
2. B

   Not Assumed7% picked this

   takes for granted that organisms capable of sending messages from their central nervous systems to their muscles are

   Since this answer begins with takes for granted / presumes, we can ask ourselves whether this qualifies as a Necessary Assumption. Did the author make this reasoning move: "If an organism can send messages from its central nervous system to its muscles, then it must be capable of locomotion"? No, the author never tried to prove that anything was capable of locomotion. The author's conclusion is trying to prove something about organisms that are incapable of locomotion.

   7%
3. C

   Not Assumed / Too Strong: only3% picked this

   presumes, without providing justification, that planned locomotion is the only biologically useful purpose for an organism's forming an

   Since this answer begins with takes for granted / presumes, we can ask ourselves whether this qualifies as a Necessary Assumption. Did the author need to assume that "the only purpose of having an internal representation of one's environment is for planned locomotion"? Of course not, that's way too extreme. The only purpose mentioned was planned locomotion, but that doesn't mean the author assumes that locomotion is the only purpose. When someone says "Black lives matter", the only lives mentioned are black lives, but that doesn't mean the speaker believes that black lives are the only ones that matter.

   3%
4. D

   Not Assumed2% picked this

   takes for granted that adaptations that serve a biologically useful purpose originally came about

   Since this answer begins with takes for granted / presumes, we can ask ourselves whether this qualifies as a Necessary Assumption. Did the author assume a biologically useful purpose (i.e planned locomotion?) originally came about for that purpose? No, the author isn't saying anything about the evolutionary history of a certain biological feature. The author is discussing biological requirements of a certain feature, but there's nothing in this conversation about adaptations or what "purpose" an adaptation had in the first place. (Truthfully, using the term "purpose" in relation to evolution is a misnomer always. Evolution isn't planning to be useful. It's a bunch of random mutations, and the ones that turn out to be useful or have a beneficial purpose start showing up more and more in the gene pool until they become a trait of the species itself.)

   2%
5. E

   Not Assumed1% picked this

   presumes, without providing justification, that an internal representation of its environment can be formed by an organism with

   Since this answer begins with takes for granted / presumes, we can ask ourselves whether this qualifies as a Necessary Assumption. Did the author assume that an organism with a rudimentary nervous system can form an internal representation of its environment? No. We never talked about different levels of complexity with nervous systems. We have no idea what the author believes about rudimentary vs. more complex nervous systems.

   1%