Logical Reasoning

PT23 · S2 · Q7 Computers perform actions that

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Computers perform actions that are closer to thinking than anything nonhuman animals do.

Information

Computers perform actions that come closer to thinking than anything nonhuman animals do.

Computers don't have volitional powers.

Some nonhuman animals do.

Evaluate

Because this paragraph is divided by a big pivot word (but, yet, however), we would anticipate that the correct answer will synthesize ideas (as almost all correct answers on Inference questions do) by Reconciling the Pivot.

Goal

The correct answer will likely provide a safely worded claim that combines the fact that computers have one trait that nonhuman animals lack (they can perform actions that are closer to thinking than what nonhuman animals can do) with the fact that computers lack one trait that some nonhuman animals possess (volitional powers).

7.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

  1. Correct

    Having volitional powers need not

    Why this is right

    This is very safe wording --- to support it, we only need one example of something that has volitional powers but doesn't have thinking. We have that: some nonhuman animals have volitional powers, and none of them are "thinking". How do we know that latter claim? We know that even computers aren't "thinking", they just perform actions that come closer to thinking than anything nonhuman animals do. When we say "computers get closer to thinking than nonhuman animals do", we're implying that computers get close, but not all the way, to 'thinking', and we're saying that nonhuman animals are even further from the status of 'thinking'. Being A need not mean B = "at least one A is not B"

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

    74% picked this

  2. Things that are not animals

    Too Strong: all non-animals

    The information presented only covers computers (one type of non-animal) and nonhuman animals. We know that "one thing (computers) that is not an animal does not have volitional powers". But we don't know enough to make a categorical statement about all non-animals to say every non-animal thing does not have volitional powers.

    16% picked this

  3. Computers possess none of the

    Too Strong: none

    We know there is one attribute of some living things (volitional powers) that computers don't possess. But we can't say that computers have zero attributes of living things.

    2% picked this

  4. It is necessary to have

    Too Strong: necessary

    We weren't given any information about any necessary requirements for thinking. It seems from the paragraph like humans are the only animals that think, but we don't know if volitional powers are required for humans to think.

    6% picked this

  5. Computers will never be able

    Too Strong: never

    We know that currently computers have come close to thinking, but have not done so. But we can't support the idea that computers will never be able to think as humans do.

    2% picked this

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