Self-study
Support Humans' emotional tendencies are essentially unchanged from those of the earliest members of our species. ████████████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ████████ █ █████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████
Summary
The author concludes that humans are generally unable to choose more wisely today than in the past.
Why?
Because our emotional tendencies are essentially unchanged from those of the earliest members of our species.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that in order for humans to be able to choose more wisely, there must be an essential change in humans’ emotional tendences. This assumption is what’s required for the author to get from “emotions essentially unchanged” to “can’t choose more wisely.”
12.
The argument depends on assuming █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Humans have undergone ██ ███████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████
Not necessary, because the argument relies only on the claim that our emotional tendencies are unchanged. There may have been physical changes, but that doesn’t relate to the fact we haven’t experienced changes in our emotional tendencies.
b
Humans who make ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ █████████
Not necessary, because the concept of being “in control” of emotions is irrelevant. We have no reason to think that being “in control” of our emotions is related to making wiser choices or emotional tendencies.
c
Human history cannot ████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████
Not necessary, because the concept of learning the “lessons of history” is irrelevant. We have no reason to think that learning the “lessons of history” is related to making wiser choices or emotional tendencies.
d
Regardless of the █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████
Too extreme to be necessary. Although the author does assume that our emotional tendencies are relevant to the wisdom of the choices we’re able to make, this doesn’t imply that humans choose on the basis of emotions “alone.” Humans can make choices in part based on things like logic and reason, as long as those factors don’t outweigh the impact of lack of change in emotional tendencies for our ability to make wiser choices.
e
Humans would now ██ ████ ██ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ █████████████
Necessary, because this is the link the author needs to get from the premise to the conclusion. If (E) were not true — if humans could make wiser choices WITHOUT having an essential change in their emotional dispositions (emo. tendencies = emo. dispositions) — then the fact we haven’t had a change in our emotional dispositions wouldn’t prove anything about our ability to make wiser choices.