Self-study
Support The human brain and its associated mental capacities evolved to assist self-preservation. █████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ████████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ ████████████ █████████ █████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes aesthetic judgments are good to the extent they help a person survive. Why? Because the brain evolved to help humans survive, so the ability to make aesthetic judgments developed in response to environments where past humans lived.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes aesthetic judgments should be evaluated based on their ability to fulfill the original purpose for which they evolved: to assist survival. He assumes there’s no better basis for determining the value of those judgments. In addition, he assumes each individual mental capacity in the human brain could only have evolved as an adaptation to a past environment.
18.
Which one of the following ██ █ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████
a
All human adaptations ██ ████ ████████████ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██████ ███████████
This gets the desired reasoning backward. If the reverse were true—and all human mental capacities were adaptations to past environments—then the author could more easily conclude the capacity for aesthetic judgments was such an adaptation.
b
Human capacities that ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████████
This is irrelevant. Since the author concludes the ability to make aesthetic judgments is a past adaptation that helped humans survive, this principle does not apply to that ability.
c
If something develops ██ █████ █ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████ █████████
This helps justify the author’s conclusion. It implies aesthetic judgments should be judged by how well they help humans survive—and not by some other standard—since they apparently evolved for that purpose.
d
Judgments that depend ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ██████
This rules out only one implausible way aesthetic judgments could be evaluated, out of many possibilities. It doesn’t help the author reach the particular conclusion that aesthetic judgments should be evaluated based on how well they help people survive.
e
Anything that enhances ███ █████████████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ███████
This is irrelevant. The author is concerned with evaluating individuals’ aesthetic judgments, not their ability to make those judgments.