Logical Reasoning

PT155 · S1 · Q22 Essayist: The historical figures that we find

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Essayist: The historical figures that we find most engaging are very rarely those who are morally most virtuous.

Conclusion (Thus)

Moral virtue is not among the characteristics that we admire most.

Evidence (Since)

The people who lives we would most like to live are those whose characteristics we admire most.

The historical figures we find most engaging are usually not the most virtuous.

Evaluate

Whenever we see a conclusion on an Assumption question, it's good to ask ourselves whether the ideas in the conclusion were discussed / defined in the evidence.

This conclusion is talking about Moral Virtue and What We Admire Most. Are either of those new, or are they both discussed in the evidence?

The "since" premise talks about What We Admire Most. We most admire whatever characteristics belong to the people whose lives we'd most like to live.

If you'd love to live Jay-Z's life, then the characteristics Jay-Z has are the ones you admire most. The conclusion is saying that , so in this example the author would be assuming that "moral virtue is not one of Jay-Z's characteristics".

Did the argument ever talk about Moral Virtue?

Yes, in the first sentence. The first sentence tells us that the historical figures we find most engaging are usually not the most morally virtuous. If George Washington is one of the historical figures we find most engaging, then he probably wasn't the most morally virtuous.

Okay, we have a conclusion about Moral Virtue and Most Admire.

In the evidence, each of those ideas is linked to a 2nd concept: Moral Virtue: less likely to be found in historical figures we find most engaging Most Admire: the characteristics of people whose lives we'd love to live

So we can anticipate that the correct answer will be linking those two 2nd concepts.

It sounds like the author is assuming that the people whose lives we'd love to live the most are the historical figures we find most engaging. That's how she could connect moral virtue and most admire.

We most admire the traits of the people whose lives we want to live. (The people whose lives we want to live are the historical figures we find most engaging). The historical figures we find most engaging weren't particularly virtuous. So, the traits we most admire don't include being particularly virtuous.

Goal

Since this argument involved symbol repetition ("admire most" and "moral virtue" were each deployed twice), it's very high probability this is testing a Linking assumption, and the missing link we found was between

"people whose lives we most want to live" and "historical figures we find most engaging".

22.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the essayist's argument?

  1. Correct

    The historical figures that we

    Why this is right

    This is the missing link we were predicting. We may have gotten worried that these were the right ideas but in reversed order. But if you're saying "the thing that's #1 in category A is the thing that's #1 in category B", it's a reversible bi-conditional relationship. There's only one #1 in each category. If the state with the most guns per capita is also the state with the most prisons per capita, then you can equivalently say that the state with the most prisons per capita is the state with the most guns per capita.

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

    76% picked this

  2. Bravery and creativity are characteristics

    Unsupported Causal Relationship

    The author mentions in consecutive sentences that engaging historical figures were not super virtuous but were brave and creative. That doesn't give us license to think she's claiming that "being brave and creative causes them to be less virtuous".

    9% picked this

  3. Historical figures are very rarely

    Too Strong: all historical figures

    We were only told that the historical figures we find most engaging are very rarely morally virtuous. The historical figures we find utterly boring might be way more common and way more morally virtuous. We should be very uneasy picking an answer on Necessary Assumption (or Inference) that feels like it's just referring back to one claim. Our correct answer here linked language from two separate claims.

    3% picked this

  4. People develop their conception of

    Out of Scope: develop their conception

    The author thinks we most admire the traits of the people whose lives we'd love to steal. And she assumes that the lives we'd love to steal are those of historical figures we find engaging. But those two facts don't reveal anything about how we developed our conception of makes an individual admirable. "What we admire most" is a different topic from "what makes an individual admirable". I find military service people highly admirable. I base my conception of what makes them admirable on presumed values they have (bravery / service to others) and ethical principles I have (life live to the fullest / make the world a better place), not what I know about historical figures.

    4% picked this

  5. Moral virtue is the characteristic

    Too Strong: least engaging

    The author is only arguing that moral virtue is not among the traits we find most admirable. She doesn't need to assume we find it least engaging. The fact that the historical figures we find most engaging weren't the most virtuous doesn't mean we are bored by morally virtuous people or that we found these figures engaging because they weren't morally virtuous.

    7% picked this

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