Critical Reasoning

Mo2men wrote:Distressed by his own personal tragedies, the Roman philosopher Cicero once asked himself whether a wise person should try to achieve the Stoic ideal of complete emotionlessness. Cicero reasoned that, however desirable the goal may be, a wise person could never attain it, since emotions are not simply irrational urges. They are, rather, a product of one's estimate of the goodness and badness of the events, people, and actions one witnesses.

Which of the following is an assumption required by Cicero's reasoning?

A. Wise people inevitably evaluate at least some of the things they observe.
B. Irrationality makes evolution of what one observes impossible.
C. Wisdom precludes attempting to attain what one cannot.
D. If evaluations are based only on reason, the they are inaccurate.
E. A wise person will not evaluate what cannot be directly observed.

GMATGuruNY wrote:

Mo2men wrote:Distressed by his own personal tragedies, the Roman philosopher Cicero once asked himself whether a wise person should try to achieve the Stoic ideal of complete emotionlessness. Cicero reasoned that, however desirable the goal may be, a wise person could never attain it, since emotions are not simply irrational urges. They are, rather, a product of one's estimate of the goodness and badness of the events, people, and actions one witnesses.

Which of the following is an assumption required by Cicero's reasoning?

A. Wise people inevitably evaluate at least some of the things they observe.
B. Irrationality makes evolution of what one observes impossible.
C. Wisdom precludes attempting to attain what one cannot.
D. If evaluations are based only on reason, the they are inaccurate.
E. A wise person will not evaluate what cannot be directly observed.

Premise:
Emotions are the product of ONE'S estimate of the goodness and badness of the events, people, and actions one witnesses.
Conclusion:
A WISE PERSON could never attain complete emotionless.

Whereas the premise is about ONE, the conclusion is about A WISE PERSON.
Assumption:
A WISE PERSON = ONE.

Apply the negation test.
When the correct answer is negated, the conclusion will be invalidated.

A, negated:
Wise people inevitably do NOT evaluate at least some of the things they observe.
Here, a wise person does NOT estimate the goodness and badness of witnessed events.
Since there is no estimation, there is no product -- in other words, there are no EMOTIONS.
As a result, the negation of A invalidates the conclusion that a wise person cannot attain emotionless.
Since the negation of A invalidates the conclusion, A is an ASSUMPTION: a statement that must be true for the conclusion to hold.

The correct answer is A.

Mo2men wrote:

GMATGuruNY wrote:

Mo2men wrote:Distressed by his own personal tragedies, the Roman philosopher Cicero once asked himself whether a wise person should try to achieve the Stoic ideal of complete emotionlessness. Cicero reasoned that, however desirable the goal may be, a wise person could never attain it, since emotions are not simply irrational urges. They are, rather, a product of one's estimate of the goodness and badness of the events, people, and actions one witnesses.

Which of the following is an assumption required by Cicero's reasoning?

A. Wise people inevitably evaluate at least some of the things they observe.
B. Irrationality makes evaluation of what one observes impossible.
C. Wisdom precludes attempting to attain what one cannot.
D. If evaluations are based only on reason, the they are inaccurate.
E. A wise person will not evaluate what cannot be directly observed.

Hi GMATGuru,

Why choices B & E are wrong?
It is so hard to reject them. what are the basis to reject them?

B: Irrationality makes evaluation of what one observes impossible.
Irrationality is irrelevant, since -- according to the passage -- emotions are NOT irrational urges.
Also, the red portion seems to contradict the PREMISE that emotions are yielded when one estimates the goodness and badness of witnessed events.
A premise is a FACT: it cannot be contradicted.
Eliminate B.

If I negate E : A wise person will evaluate what cannot be directly observed.
I feel the negation goes against the premise which is not allowed in an argument. Is my reasoning correct?

Here, the red portion does seem to contradict the premise that emotions are yielded by events that are WITNESSED.
Eliminate E.