PT122.S2.Q23

PrepTest 122 - Section 2 - Question 23

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Commentator: Conclusion Human behavior cannot be fully understood without inquiring into nonphysical aspects of persons. ██ ████████ ██ █████ █ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████████ █████ ██████████████ █████████████ ██████████████ ███ █████████████ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████████ █████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██ █████████

Argument Summary

The author concludes that human behavior can't be fully understood without looking into nonphysical aspects of people. In other words, physical information alone isn't enough.

What's the evidence? The author asks us to imagine having a complete scientific account of every physical aspect of a human action, covering every neurological, physiological, and environmental event involved. Even with all of that, the author says, we "obviously" still wouldn't truly comprehend the action or know why it occurred. So we must need something beyond the physical.

Circular Reasoning

The flaw is circular reasoning. The author's "evidence" already assumes the conclusion is true.

The premise says: even if you had every physical fact about an action, you still wouldn't understand it. But why should we believe that? The only reason to accept that claim is if you already think physical information isn't enough to understand behavior. And that's the conclusion. So the author is essentially saying, "Physical information isn't enough. How do I know? Because physical information isn't enough."

CONCLUSION understanding behavior requires looking beyond the physical Why should I believe this? Because... PREMISE a complete physical account wouldn't give us comprehension premise = conclusion (just in different words)

The word "obviously" is a helpful signal. The author treats it as self-evident that physical information alone can't produce understanding. But that's exactly what's in dispute. It's not actually obvious. Whether physical information is sufficient to understand behavior is the whole question, and the author just assumes the answer is no.

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23.

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████

a

No support is ███████ ███ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████

b

The purported evidence ████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████

c

It concludes that █ ███████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██████

d

It fails to ████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ █████ █████████ ███ ███████████

e

It presumes, without █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ █ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████

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