Self-study
Kim: Support In northern Europe during the eighteenth century a change of attitude occurred that found expression both in the adoption of less solemn and elaborate death rites by the population at large and in a more optimistic view of the human condition as articulated by philosophers. ████ ██████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████
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Defending Against Attacks
Kim presents textbook phenomenon-hypothesis reasoning:
Phenomenon: People got happier and less deathy during the 1700s.
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Hypothesis: This is because they started living way longer during that time.
Lee challenges that reasoning by pointing out (what Lee believes to be) a necessary assumption:
For your argument to be correct, people must have been aware they were living way longer.
There are two main ways we could defend Kim. First, we could give evidence that the assumption Lee points out is true – i.e. we could present facts that indicate people were aware they were living longer.
Second, we could show that the assumption Lee points out isn’t necessary – i.e. we could map out a theory of how increasing life expectancy could have made people happier and less deathy even though they weren’t aware they were living longer.
14.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███████ █████ ██████████
a
An increase in ████ ██████████ ██ █ ██████████ █████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ ████████ ██████████
This provides a mechanism by which increasing life expectancy could have made people happier and less deathy even though they weren’t aware they were living longer. It suggests the assumption Lee points out isn’t actually necessary for Kim’s explanation.
Perhaps increased life expectancy leads to better economic outcomes, which makes people happy. That narrative doesn’t rely on people being directly aware of their increased life expectancy.
b
Present-day psychologists have █████ ████ ████████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████ █████ ████ ███████████
(B) is guilty of making the same assumption Lee challenges in Kim’s explanation. (B) essentially says “people’s attitudes can change if they’re aware of their increasing life expectancy,” but Lee’s whole point is that we can’t assume people were actually aware.
c
Philosophers in northern ██████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████
Philosophers’ conjectures only ever appear as an effect in this stimulus. Neither Kim nor Lee cares (or comments on) whether or not philosophers’ conjectures cause stuff.
d
The concept of ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████
If anything, this strengthens Lee’s criticism. If Lee is correct* in saying Kim’s argument depends on the assumption that people were aware their life expectancy had increased, then (D) would show the assumption is false (because you can’t be aware of concepts you don’t even have in your head).
*Lee’s claim that this assumption is necessary to Kim’s argument is not, in fact, correct. But that’s beside the point for (D).
e
Before the eighteenth ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████████
This directly weakens Kim’s explanation, pointing out a more-likely cause for the phenomenon (religious teachings) than Kim’s proposed cause (demographics).