Self-study
Professor: It has been argued that freedom of thought is a precondition for intellectual progress, because freedom of thought allows thinkers to pursue their ideas, regardless of whom these ideas offend, in whatever direction they lead. ████████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ██ ████ ████████████ █████████ ███ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ████████████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████
Summary
The professor concludes that freedom of thought is not required for intellectual progress. He supports this by saying that to make intellectual progress, one must fully explore ideas, and to fully explore ideas, one must have intellectual discipline.
Missing Connection
The professor’s conclusion is about freedom of thought, but his premises say nothing about freedom of thought. He concludes that intellectual progress does not require freedom of thought, and his premises say that intellectual progress does require intellectual discipline.
To get from his premises to his conclusion, the professor must assume that people with intellectual discipline do not have freedom of thought. This would then prove that intellectual progress does not require freedom of thought.
19.
The conclusion drawn by the █████████ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
Thinkers who limit █████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████████████ █████████
The fact that thinkers who stick to a specific belief system are limited in their intellectual progress tells us nothing about freedom of thought. Instead, we need an answer choice that establishes that people with intellectual discipline do not have freedom of thought.
b
Thinkers can mine ███ ████ ████████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ██████ ████████████ █████████
This suggests that intellectual progress is required in order to fully explore ideas. But we still need to prove that freedom of thought is not required for intellectual progress. (B) tells us nothing about freedom of thought.
c
In societies that ███████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ████████████ ███████████
Contrapositive: People with intellectual discipline do not live in societies that protect freedom of thought. Because intellectual discipline is necessary for intellectual progress, (C) guarantees the conclusion that freedom of thought is not required for intellectual progress.
d
Freedom of thought █████████ ███████████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████
The professor doesn’t say anything about creativity or the discovery of truth. Even if freedom of thought causes creativity and the discovery of truth, (D) fails to prove that freedom of thought is not required for intellectual progress.
e
Without intellectual discipline, ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████
Instead of (E), we need to establish that thinkers with intellectual discipline have no freedom of thought. This would prove that freedom of thought isn’t required for intellectual progress.