#22 - Essayist: The historical figures that we find most engaging are

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (A).

For this assumption question, I found it helpful to rearrange the ordering of the stimulus to try and make the assumption a little easier to spot:

(P) The historical figures that we find most engaging are very rarely those who are morally most virtuous.
(P) Instead, what distinguishes them to us is their bravery and creativity.
(P) Since people whose lives we would most like to live are whose characteristics we admire most,
(C) moral virtue is not among those characteristics.

What jumps out to me is how out of nowhere "the people whose lives we would most like to live" comes from in this argument. We saw that the author found engagement to be important in our exploration of historical figures, but why? Could it perhaps be because that is how we determine whose lives we would most like to live?

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. Bingo. The author dismissed moral virtue as typically not the most engaging of characteristics, and because people whose lives we'd most like to live are those who characteristics we admire the most, moral virtue can't be one of them. This is why engagement is important: because that's how we determine whose lives we'd most like to live, allowing us to reach our conclusion that dismisses moral virtue.

Answer choice (B): Even if this is true, it doesn't mention engagement or emulation, so it doesn't have any impact in the gap in our argument. Skip.

Answer choice (C): Same as B.

Answer choice (D): Same as B.

Answer choice (E): This answer choice mentions engagement, but it doesn't explain why engagement is important. We need something explaining why engagement is relevant here, and this answer choice fails to do that.

[bella243]

Hi Powerscore, could someone please share a way to quicklt prephrase an answer to such a confusing and verbose stimulus?

My prephrase was that morally virtuous people are not the people whose lives we most want to live.

[Fightforthat170]

Hi Powerscore, could someone please share a way to quicklt prephrase an answer to such a confusing and verbose stimulus?

My prephrase was that morally virtuous people are not the people whose lives we most want to live.

Hey there, I also struggled with this question and maybe you can see if this helps a bit! And anyone pls correct me if there's mistakes.

Premise 1: The historical figures that we find most engaging are not those we find most virtuous.

Premise 2: People whose lives we would most like to live are those whose characteristics we admire most.

Conclusion: Most virtue is not what we admire most.

The first prephrase that jumped into my mind after reading the stimulus and knowing that this is an assumption question is: Being most virtue is not something that we would most like to live.

And if this is a sufficient assumption question I would go straight into the answer choices and start to look for something like that. I actually did but I didn't find anything like that. But E caught my eyes while I was looking, but E doesn't feel quite right, so I read the question stem again, this is a necessary assumption question, which means the correct answer choice is probably more subtle than my prephrase.

Then I saw the gap between most engaging in the first premise, and most like to live in the second premise.

In fact, these two terms need to equal in order for the argument to make sense. Otherwise the argument doesn't flow. So A is the necessary assumption here!

[Adam Tyson]

Well done, Fightforthat170! I have little to add. It's that gap between the premise about "most engaging" and the conclusion about "most like to live" that needs closing, and so we should be looking for an answer that connects those two concepts.

I agree with you, bella - this one really seemed like a word salad to me at first! But focusing on the mechanics of Assumption questions and looking for gaps or other weaknesses should allow us to cut through the noise and see the key differences between the evidence and the conclusion, and from there it is one small step to formulating a helpful prephrase.

[mkarimi73]

Could I have a reason as to why (B) is wrong? Is it because it does not get at the gap in the argument, just as (A) does very nicely? My biggest issue with Necessary Assumption question is making sure my negations are precise, logically accurate, and allow me to safely eliminate them based on the stimulus provided. So, could I possibly hear an expert's approach to negating (B)? Thanks.

[Robert Carroll]

mkarimi73,

The negation of answer choice (B):

Bravery and creativity are not characteristics that make it more difficult to be morally virtuous.

That negation does not affect the argument in any way. To see how, I think it's better to go back to the statement in answer choice (B) itself, and think - does the author think bravery and creativity thwart moral virtue? I don't see where the author says that, nor do I see why the author would want to assume that. Bravery and creativity are characteristics had by some people who are not the most morally virtuous people. That's all; there's no further indication that bravery and creativity MAKE people less morally virtuous. So answer choice (B) does not have to be assumed.

Robert Carroll

[maedayoku]

Although i got this question right, upon reviewing i really struggled with figuring out how the negated version of answer choice A destroys the argument. The negated version of A "historical figures we find most engaging are NOT those whose lives we would most like to live" seems to just make the conclusion less likely. Does this mean A is both a necessary assumption and sufficient assumption?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi maedayoku,

Your negation of Answer A looks good.

This negated statement does in fact completely destroy the argument, not just making the conclusion less likely, but showing the conclusion has zero support based on the premises given.

To see why, let's look at the key premises and add in the negation of Answer A (I've removed the premise about bravery since it is unnecessary.)

(P) The historical figures who we find most engaging are very rarely those who are morally most virtuous.
(P) People whose lives we would most like to live are people whose characteristics we admire most.
(Negated Answer A) Historical figures who we find most engaging are NOT those whose lives we would most like to live.
(C) Moral virtue is not among those characteristics (that we most admire).

Hopefully, you see that this argument (with the negated Answer A) makes absolutely no sense. If the historical figures who we find most engaging (who usually aren't morally virtuous) are NOT those whose lives we would most like to live, then there is no reason to conclude that moral virtue is not one of the characteristics that we admire most.

In other words, we may find immoral historical figures engaging to read about, but we would never want to live their lives and we don't admire their characteristics.

The negation of A destroys the critical missing link in the argument between most engaging and lives we most like to live, which is why Answer A is a necessary Supporter Assumption.