Self-study
Support Over 90 percent of the human brain currently serves no purpose, as is evident from the fact that Support many people with significant brain damage show no discernible adverse effects. ██ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ██████████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that, when humans begin to tap into the tremendous source of creativity and innovation, that many problems that seem insurmountable today will be within our ability to solve. To support this, the author notes that over 90% of the brain remains unused (a sub-conclusion that is supported by the observation that many people with significant brain damage experience no noticeable negative effects).
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that the large portion of the brain that currently serves no purpose could be a source of creativity and innovation. From the information given, we have no reason to believe that these parts of the brain are a potential source of creativity and innovation––they could, for example, be purely structural with no potential to impact one’s creativity.
14.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ █████████
a
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████████
The argument does not make this assumption––there is no indication that brain damage is ever (or always) “easily” detectable.
b
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████████
A lack of creativity and innovation is presumed to be a reason that some problems haven’t been solved, but the argument does not presume that a lack of creativity and innovation is the only reason for any unsolved problem.
c
The argument infers ████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███
The argument does not make this inference merely based on the fact that we don’t know what these parts of the brain do. Instead, the inference is based on the observation that significant brain damage does not have discernible adverse effects in many people.
d
The argument infers ████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████
The argument does not make this inference. The argument does not claim that these problems will be solved; the argument only says that the problems will be in our ability to solve.
e
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███████████
The author says that 90% of the human brain is unused, then in the conclusion jumps to the claim about “this tremendous source of creativity and innovation.” We have no reason to believe that the unused parts of the brain are a potential source of creativity and innovation.