Logical Reasoning

PT147 · S4 · Q21 Only engineering is capable

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Only engineering is capable of analyzing the nature of a machine in terms of the successful working of the whole; physics and chemistry determine the material conditions necessary for this success, but cannot express the notion of purpose.

Conclusion

Only physiology can analyze whether the organs of an organism are functioning healthily.

Evidence

Physics and chemistry can't do it, because they can't measure whether a human body is operating "as it should". Physics and chemistry can't analyze whether a machine is successfully working as a whole, because they don't know what it means for the machine to be operating "as it should". Only engineering has language of purpose, of what successful functioning would mean / would look like.

(In other words, physics and chemistry can define the nature of things as they are, but they don't have any language to define whether things are successfully working at their purpose, only engineering or physiology can do that).

Evaluate

Yikes. This is an all-timer in terms of hard paragraphs to read.

In a boring formal sense, any time an author argues like this, Only Peter can do thing X. Because Joe and Reggie don't know how to do Y.

the author would be assuming . the author would also be assuming

So this argument is assuming .

and it would be assuming

Because of the word "Similarly", we know that the author is trying to Complete an Analogy, so we want to think about any of the parallels the author is assuming.

Goal

Look for an answer saying , an answer saying , or an answer that feels like it's supplying some idea the author assumed was parallel in both halves of the analogy.

21.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the analogy?

  1. The functioning of the human

    Weakens, if anything

    This was not one of the parallels that the author was assuming in this analogy. If the human organism were machine-like, then presumably it wouldn't be only physiology that could analyze it; engineering would also be able to.

    15% picked this

  2. Physics and chemistry determine the

    Not Necessary

    This one's hard. It feels like, "Sure, why not? This would be another parallel between both sides of the analogy". But the author's analogy is all about what Physics and Chemistry can't do. It doesn't really care about what they can do. If we negated this answer choice (P&C do not determine the conditions required), then it would make Physics and Chemistry even less useful when it comes to physiology. That doesn't really hurt the author's analogy at all. She's trying to say that only engineering/physiology can do X, because physics and chemistry can't do something necessary for X. The statement about what physics and chemistry can do in the world of machines is a concession, not a premise.

    18% picked this

  3. Correct

    The notion of purpose used

    Why this is right

    This is a strange answer because by saying "has an analog" it's like they're just telling us in the answer choice how this answer is supposed to work. Usually, if they're supplying the missing piece in an analogy, they wouldn't say, "We're completing the analogy" out loud. Is the notion of purpose something that needs to be present in both sides of the analogy? Yes, because purpose is the required thing that physics and chemistry have no language to deal with. In the case of a machine, what is it's purpose is something only the maker could tell you. "It's a trampoline. It's supposed to allow you to jump up and down in roughly the same spot, and to allow you to jump higher than you could off the ground using elastic response." Physics and chemistry could tell us what types of materials springs or stretchable rubber we would need, and the angle and tightness of elastic response that would send a jumper roughly straight up, but it couldn't tell you whether the trampoline works successfully as a whole, because that would take the engineer saying, "Yup! It's letting people bounce up and down as I intended." When we move over to physiology, who's the engineer saying, "Yes, the human body is working as I intended?" To someone who believes that natural selection intended the body to reproduce sexually, the human body would be functioning correctly if it replicated via childbirth. To someone who believes that a supernatural being intended the human body to spread love and compassion would say the body is functioning correctly if the person is spreading love and compassion. We don't have a consensus view on what a "successfully working human being" is, so how does the author think we have an analogous Physiologist who can evaluate whether the body is "operating according to the principles of its design". In the context of this conversation, several ideas are being used interchangeably: Successful working of the whole achieving its purpose operational principles (how it should operate)

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

    53% picked this

  4. Physiology as a science is

    Out of Scope: largely independent

    It doesn't change anything whether it's largely independent or only somewhat independent. As long as Physiology is at least somewhat distinct from Physics and Chemistry, then it could have a special ingredient (in this case, the language of "purpose") that would allow it to have a unique ability to judge certain things.

    8% picked this

  5. Biological processes are irreducible to

    Too Broad: biological processes

    The author thinks that "judgment of an organism's proper functioning" is irreducible to mechanics (Physics) and chemistry. But she doesn't need say that no biological process can be reduced to a mechanical or chemical process. I'm guessing she would say the biological process of cell division, for example, can be reduced to mechanical/chemical processes.

    6% picked this

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