Self-study
Even though Support apes are the only nonhuman creatures able to learn human language, Support no ape has ever used its human language skills to ask such philosophical questions as, "How am I different from all other creatures?" Therefore, Conclusion philosophical thought is unique to humans.
Summary
Only humans are capable of philosophical thought. Why? Because the only other creatures capable of human language are apes, but they don’t ask philosophical questions in human language. (So only humans ask philosophical questions in human language.)
Notable Assumptions
The author concludes that only humans as are capable philosophical thought on the basis that only humans can ask philosophical questions in human language. But what does human language have to do with philosophical thought? The author must assume that philosophical thought requires you to ask philosophical questions in human language.
11.
The conclusion in the passage █████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
a
Human language is ██████ ██ ███████
This contradicts the premises, which explicitly state that human language is not unique to humans. Apes can also learn human language. So the author can’t possibly assume (A).
b
Apes are incapable ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████████
It doesn’t matter whether apes are capable of thinking in human language, because either way, we know they don’t use it to ask philosophical questions. It’s this lack of philosophical questioning that matters to the argument, not the general ability to think in human language.
c
Philosophical thought can ██ █████████ ████ ██ █████ █████████
If we don’t assume (C)—if philosophical thought is possible without expressing it through human language—then it doesn’t matter that only humans can express philosophical thought through human language. Other creatures could have philosophical thought without human language. Without (C), the conclusion is entirely unsupported.
d
Speaking in human ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ █████████
The difficulty of any task is irrelevant. The argument is all about what any given creature is capable of. So it doesn’t matter how easy or hard it is to think or speak in human language—the only question is whether a creature can do it or not.
e
It is more █████████ ██ █████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████████ ██████████
The difficulty of any task is irrelevant. The argument is all about what any given creature is capable of. So it doesn’t matter how easy or hard it is to learn human language or express something in it—the only question is whether a creature can do it or not.