PT13.S4.Q19 - Alternative Medicine

beepbooptroupe

So I understood that to weaken the claim against alternative medicine in the stimulus, I needed to find an answer showing any evidence that alternative medicine is effective. I also see that D does this in a more specific way than C.

I was stuck between C and D, but I ultimately eliminated D because it didn’t specifically connect alternative medicine to the bodily effects of a patient believing in their treatment. For D to be right, I’d have to assume that the “medical treatment” the patient believes in is alternative medicine, and not orthodox medicine.

I chose C because it actually connects alternative medicine to an “effect,” even if that effect is something less tangible like hope. D would be a much better answer if it explicitly connected a patient's belief in alternative medicine to bodily effects, but it doesn't. It just describes the effects of a patient's belief in their medical treatment, which could be either alternative or orthodox medicine.

When I’m choosing between two answers, I’ve learned to choose the answer that requires me to make fewer assumptions and leaps. But this question is making me question that entire strategy. How can I safely assume that the “medical treatment” in answer choice D refers to alternative medicine? There isn't anything in the stimulus, question stem, or answer choice that allows me to make that assumption, so I must be missing something.

Can anyone help me understand how it's a warranted assumption that "medical treatment" in D refers to alternative medicine? I'm stumped.

Kangtime

I don't think you have to question that entire strategy with this question - To me C requires a bigger assumption than D.

Most of the stimulus is pretty irrelevant to the question, and the part that really matters is the last sentence: "One of the reasons alternative medicine is free of such side effects is that it does not have any effects at all." Everything that was said before this sentence is pretty much context that we're not really in a position to refute, so we have to weaken this sentence. When I first read the stimulus, I saw 2 ways of doing so:

1) Show that alternative medicine is NOT free of such effects
2) Alternative medicine has an effect

But the point of the stimulus seems like they're saying alternative medicine is BS and it's not better than orthodox medicine in any way - so although 1) will technically attack that sentence if it were to stand alone, it feels like an odd way of weakening this argument. I went into to AC expecting evidence showing 2)

(C) says that alternative medicine offers hope to those to those for whom orthodox provides no cure. I passed with this AC because having hope is different than having an effect. (C) requires the assumption "if someone has hope that a medicine will help them, then it has an effect on them". If this isn't true, then it doesn't weaken that argument at all.

(D) says a patient's belief in the medical treatment they are receiving can trigger a hormonal effect, which ultimately has a healing effect. In other words, the belief can lead to an effect. This answer choice explicitly says that a belief leads to healing, which is an assumption we needed for (C). So this AC covers the weak point of (C). The assumption that this AC needs is "people who choose a medicine has a belief in that method". This seems like a much better assumption than the one required for (C), which (D) covers.

You rejected (D) because you weren't sure whether the medicine referred to in (D) referred to an alternative one or the orthodox one. The answer is that it can apply to both. It doesn't matter if this refers to orthodox as well as alternative medicine, because even if that is so, it has no bearing on the argument that we're trying to weaken because the argument doesn't concern orthodox medicine. All we're concerned about is whether alternative medicine has any effect whatsoever. So the question of "does this apply to orthodox medicine?" is irrelevant. The relevant question is "does this apply to alternative medicine?" and the answer is yes! Because the AC only says "the medical treatment the patient is receiving", and alternative medicine is definitely a type of medicine that a patient can receive (and chooses to receive according to the stimulus).

Sorry for the long answer, but I hope it was clear, if not please comment and ill try to clarify.

beepbooptroupe

Hi! Just so I understand you correctly, you mean that we can safely assume that the "medical treatment the patient is receiving" applies to alternative medicine just because the alternative medicine could be a form of medical treatment that a patient receives?

In choosing D, were you thinking about it this way: "A patient's belief in the medical treatment they're receiving can have these bodily effects. Alternative medicine is a form of medical treatment. So if a patient believes in the alternative medicine they're receiving, then the natural painkillers/allergic reactions/healing can result, and therefore alternative medicine could have an effect."

Thank you for your thorough response!

cjcjcjcj

Think of it this way: The stimulus is saying that alternative medicine - no effect. To weaken this, you just gotta look for an AC that argues that alternative medicine - effect.
D does that perfectly. Alternative medicine has an effect of promoting healing.
The AC refers to alternative medicine as "medical treatment" as an umbrella term. The idea of patients' receiving psychological relief commonly occurs in all types of medicines.