PT109.S4.Q16 > Question

SECTION 1 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 2 · rc

PASSAGE 1

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7

PASSAGE 2

Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14

PASSAGE 3

Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22

PASSAGE 4

Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27 Question 28

SECTION 3 · lr

SECTION 4 · lr

The phrase “survival of the fittest” isn’t informative or of any scientific interest. Why not? Because based on the biological definition of “fittest,” the phrase really just means that the creatures most likely to survive are the the ones who are most likely to survive. And that’s just a tautology (i.e., it’s completely self-evident).

The author demonstrates that “survival of the fittest” is a tautology, but then concludes that it’s not informative and not of scientific interest. So he must assume that if a claim is a tautology, then it’s not informative and not of scientific interest.

This means if something isn’t informative, then it’s not of scientific interest. But the argument doesn’t suggest that because the slogan isn’t informative, it isn’t of scientific interest. It simply reasons that the slogan is both not informative and not of scientific interest. There’s no need for the two characteristics to have a direct relationship to each other.

The author isn’t drawing his conclusion from the fact that “survival of the fittest” is true; he’s drawing it from the fact that the slogan is a tautology (i.e., self-evident). So he doesn’t need to assume anything about the relationship between truth and scientific interest.

The author doesn’t need to assume anything about what’s generally true of popular slogans. It could be that popular slogans are almost always informative and of scientific interest. He can still argue that this one popular slogan is not informative and of no scientific interest.

The author assumes that informative claims cannot be tautologies, not that they can’t use terms in popularly used ways. Whether or not some informative claims use terms in popularly used ways has no effect on whether “survival of the fittest,” specifically, is an informative claim.

The author assumes that a tautology is not of scientific interest, even if it’s a true claim. So he must likewise assume that being true isn’t sufficient for a claim to be of scientific interest. If he didn’t assume this—if truth were sufficient for a claim to be of scientific interest—then “survival of the fittest” would be of scientific interest, and the conclusion would be anti-supported.

PrepTest 109 - Section 4 - Question 16

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