Self-study
Support Numerous paintings and engravings representing warfare can be found in remains of all civilizations going back to and including the Neolithic period, when agriculture was first developed. ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ █████ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██ ████████████ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that the transition to an agricultural society caused warfare to first develop.
What makes the author think this?
Because there are lots of paintings representing warfare that date back to the period when agriculture was first developed. But there are no paintings representing warfare from before that period.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the presence or absence of paintings representing warfare is indicative of the presence or absence of warfare in a society. (This overlooks the possibility that warfare could have occurred before people got the idea to start painting it.)
The author assumes there are no other explanations for the beginning of warfare besides the transition to an agricultural society. (This overlooks the possibility that something else could have occurred around that time that caused warfare to develop.)
16.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Paintings and engravings ████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███████
Not necessary, because even if they weren’t the dominant form of artistic expression, the existence of paintings/engravings representing warfare can still indicate the presence or absence of war.
b
Warfare in the █████████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ ████████████ █████
Not necessary, because the reasoning isn’t based on any belief about the specific reasons for war. Although the author does believe a transition to agricultural societies caused warfare to develop, he doesn’t say anything that suggests a belief about what exactly those warring societies fought about.
c
There was no ███████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if there WAS warfare prior to the period in which paintings/engravings of warfare were first created — then we cannot be sure that there was no warfare before the period in which agriculture first developed. There might have been warfare even before agricultural societies came about. The author must assume this isn’t the case in order to conclude that warfare “first” developed from the transition to agricultural societies.
d
Warfare is the ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █ █████████████
Not necessary, because the author doesn’t have to have any belief about what is “inevitable.” The author does argue that a particular historical transition caused warfare, but that doesn’t mean the author thinks that in an alternate timeline, the transition to an agricultural society was guaranteed to cause warfare. (I can say that my fall yesterday caused me to break my leg without believing that it was inevitable that the fall would break my leg.)
e
Paintings and engravings ██ ████████████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████
Not necessary, because the argument concerns the presence or absence of paintings/engravings representing warfare. The author never relies on any claim about paintings/engravings that represent anything else besides warfare, such as representations of agricultural life.