Cora: It is natural for humans to use technology to effect changes on the environment—humans have used technology in that way for many thousands of years. Therefore, your criticism is misguided.
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
Cora concludes that Max is misguided for claiming “humans must return to a natural way of living” in light of the environmental damage caused by technology. Why does Cora conclude Max is misguided? Because humans have historically utilized technology to change their environments, so we can consider humans’ use of technology to be “natural.”
Identify Argument Part
The claim disputes an assumption in Max’s argument that humans’ use of technology is unnatural.
A
It is used to suggest that the alleged cause of terrible changes to the environment cannot be correctly described as unnatural.
Contrary to Max’s argument, Cora does claim that humans’ use of technology could be considered “natural.”
B
It is used to suggest that humans have benefited from many of the changes that they have wrought on the environment.
It is unclear whether Cora thinks that humans have benefited from changes to the environment. She is concluding, rather, that using technology to cause these changes could be considered “natural.”
C
It is used to suggest that Max’s conclusion that technology has wrought terrible changes on the environment has not been supported.
It is unclear whether Cora thinks that humans’ use of technology have caused terrible changes to the environment. She is concluding, rather, that using technology to cause these changes could be considered “natural.”
D
It is used to suggest that the conveniences of modern life will make it difficult for humans to return to a natural way of living.
Cora is not concluding that humans’ use of technology will make it difficult to return to a natural way of living. She is concluding, rather, that the use of technology itself could be considered “natural.”
E
It is used to suggest that it is a mistake to take the environmental changes caused by technology to be a moral issue.
Cora does not conclude that environmental changes caused by technology are not a moral issue. She is concluding, rather, that the use of technology by humans could be considered “natural.”