Self-paced
Anthropologist: After mapping the complete dominance hierarchy for a troupe of vervet monkeys by examining their pairwise interaction, we successfully predicted more complex forms of their group behavior by assuming that each monkey had knowledge of the complete hierarchy. █████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██ ████ █████
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Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The anthropologist talks about a study where, after assuming vervet monkeys each had knowledge of their troupe's complete dominance hierarchy, the anthropologist and her colleagues were able to predict complex forms of those monkeys' group behavior. The anthropologist concludes that, since the prediction was so accurate, the assumption that led to that prediction must also be true: the vervet monkeys each knew about the complete dominance hierarchy.
The primatologist responds by claiming this conclusion doesn't follow. She uses an analogous argument: assuming that certain bank machines want to satisfy customer requests can lead to correct predictions of their output. By the anthropologist's logic, this means the machines actually have desires, which doesn't make sense.
26.
Which one of the following ██ █ █████ █████ █████ ███ ██████████████ ███ ███ █████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████████
a
whether the anthropologist ████████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ █████████
Incorrect. The primatologist never contests whether the anthropologist's prediction was successful. Their disagreement is about whether the prediction's success reveals that the assumption underlying it was accurate.
b
whether the output ██ █ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ █████████
Incorrect. The anthropologist doesn't say anything about bank machines. The primatologist just brings up bank machines as an analogy.
c
whether vervet monkeys ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██████ █████ ███ ██████
Incorrect. We know the anthropologist agrees with this, but we don't actually know what the primatologist thinks about whether vervet monkeys can have this kind of knowledge or not. The primatologist's point is that the success of the anthropologist's prediction alone does not show that vervet monkeys have this kind of knowledge — not that vervet monkeys do not or cannot have such knowledge.
d
whether the fact ████ ███ ████████████████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ █████████ █████████
Correct. The anthropologist thinks that the success of the prediction is sufficient to show that the assumption about vervet monkeys having knowledge of their dominance hierarchy is accurate. The primatologist rejects this claim.
e
whether the behavior █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █ ██████████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███████
Incorrect. We don't know if these vervet monkeys were in "experimental situations" to begin with — the anthropologist could have been observing them in the wild. So there's certainly no disagreement over whether experimental behavior can be the basis for a generalization about "all" vervet monkeys.