#23 - Essayist: Computers have the capacity to represent an

[maximbasu]

Hello,
I chose B as the correct answer while the correct answer was C.

I diagrammed the stimulus like this:

Computer--> Represent + Perform

Human mind--> Represent + Perform

Human mind = computer

I don't understand how you would reason that C presents similar abstract information. How could you diagram the "proper functioning of every compound?"


Thank you, Maxim.

[Eric Ockert]

Maxim

The key to the argument (and the key flaw in the argument, for that matter) is in the conclusion. The author first states that computers and the human minds share similar characteristics (the capacity to represent and to perform logical transformations on pieces of information). The author then concludes that this makes one thing a type of the other. That isn't necessarily true.

Using the Conclusion Test, any correct answer would have to make the same flawed claim that because two thing share similar characteristics, one thing is a type of the other. Answer choice (C) does this. It argues that organisms and communities both have a similar characteristic (they have an interdependence of components) and that therefore communities are a type of organism ("communities belong to the category of organisms").

Answer choice (B) on the other hand, concludes that because two things share a similar characteristic, that characteristic cannot be a reasonable criterion for distinguishing one thing from other similar things. That is a fundamentally different conclusion from claiming one thing is a type of the other.

Also, it would be incorrect to characterize this conclusion as "Human mind = computer." If the human mind equals a computer, then a computer equals a human mind. But that is not what the author is saying. The author is basically saying that the human mind is a subcategory or type of computer.

Finally, this question is really not a good candidate for diagramming. The important part to identify in answer choice (C) is that, regardless of what the characteristic is, organisms and communities share that characteristic. That is the part that needs to be duplicated.

[maximbasu]

Eric,
You give the best replies. I understand it really well, as your other posts as well.
Powerscore should give you a 'high-five' from me.

Maxim

[floydbtric@gmail.com]

I understand how C is a much better answer now, however, I initially chose D and I'm wondering if it would have been fair to eliminate it as a contender from the jump because it used the modifier "some"?

"Some vitamins require the presence in adequate amounts of some mineral to be beneficial. Thus, selenium is needed to make viamin E fully active, anyone with a selenium deficiency will have a greater risk of contracting those diseases from which vitamin E provides some measure of protection"

[Luke Haqq]

Hi floydbtric!

Yes, its reliance on the word "some" does seem to move answer choice (D) out of contention. In addition, as Eric notes above, one can abstract from this stimulus that it's saying that "because two things share similar characteristics, one thing is a type of the other." In other words, it's saying that A does XYZ, and B also does XYZ, so therefore B must a type of A, which doesn't necessarily follow. Beyond its reliance on the word some, answer choice (D) doesn't quite match that type of flawed reasoning.