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Completely stumped by this one!!!!

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by dv2020 » Fri May 27, 2011 12:25 am
The question whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is certainly imprecise because we are not sure how different from us something might be and still count as "intelligent life". Yet we cannot just decide to define "intelligent life" in some more precise way since it is likely that we will find and recognize intelligent life elsewhere in the universe only if we leave our definitions open to new, unimagined possibilities.
The argument can most reasonably be interpreted as an objection to which one of the following claims?
(A) The question whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is one that will never be correctly answered.
(B) Whether or not there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, our understanding of intelligent life is limited.
(C) The question about the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe must be made more precise if we hope to answer it correctly.
(D) The question whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is so imprecise as to be meaningless.
(E) The question whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is one we should not spend our time trying to answer.
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by sivaelectric » Fri May 27, 2011 1:15 am
IMO A. What is OA?
If I am wrong correct me :), If my post helped let me know by clicking the Thanks button ;).

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by hamadah1 » Fri May 27, 2011 2:58 am
I would pick answer C
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by HSPA » Fri May 27, 2011 4:14 am
I am with D, This question is an inference sword having sharp edges on both sides
dv2020 wrote:The question whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is certainly imprecise because we are not sure how different from us something might be and still count as "intelligent life". Yet we cannot just decide to define "intelligent life" in some more precise way since it is likely that we will find and recognize intelligent life elsewhere in the universe only if we leave our definitions open to new, unimagined possibilities.
The argument can most reasonably be interpreted as an objection to which one of the following claims?
(A) The question whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is one that will never be correctly answered.
(B) Whether or not there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, our understanding of intelligent life is limited.
(C) The question about the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe must be made more precise if we hope to answer it correctly.
(D) The question whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is so imprecise as to be meaningless.
(E) The question whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is one we should not spend our time trying to answer.
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by ani1130 » Fri May 27, 2011 4:58 am
I think the answer to this question is A.

My resoning is as given below:

The author in his last statement quotes that:

"we will find and recognize intelligent life elsewhere in the universe only if we leave our definitions open to new, unimagined possibilities."

By saying that "we will find and recognize intellignet life" author is agreeing to the fact that it is possible to answer correctly whether intellignet life exists on the universe if we keep our minds open to unimaginable possibilities and let go of traditional definations.

Hence the statement A which states:

"The question whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is one that will never be correctly answered."
is an objection.

However, this is my resoning. I am not an expert. If anyone feels, my resoning is incorrect, please correct me.


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by dv2020 » Fri May 27, 2011 5:01 am
OA is C
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by HSPA » Fri May 27, 2011 5:04 am
dv2020 wrote:OA is C
Impossible.. I am not with OA..Only if we miss a NOT in the question it is C.. because it is an opposite answer.
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by Ozlemg » Fri May 27, 2011 5:13 am
I am between A and D.
But I am stuck with A.

In D, it says "The question whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is so imprecise as to be meaningless." Argument does not talk about meaning or meaninglessness. It talks about "how to define" it. So D is far away from the scope of the argument.

Argument says humans we can recognize intelligent life if we leave the definition open to new things. So in A ".....will never be correctly answered" assertion is directly and explicitly opposed by the argument.
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by ani1130 » Fri May 27, 2011 5:23 am
My reasoning for not selecting C is as follows:

The author says that it is not possible to answer the question whether "intillignet life exists" until we do not let go of the traditional defination of intillignent life completely, making the defination more precise is not going to help....

So if the answer choice C had stated "The defination of intelligent life must be made more precise if we hope to answer it correctly." then I would have definately gone with choice C.

I do not think that making the question "Whether intillignet life exists" more precise is same as making the "defination of intellignet life" more precise.

Please provide an explanation on the correct answer and please help me identify where I am going wrong.

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by champmag » Mon May 30, 2011 1:40 am
+1 for C.

Good question.
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by cans » Mon May 30, 2011 1:47 am
IMO C
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by prachinadk » Wed Jun 11, 2014 10:47 am
The correct answer to this one is C.

This is because, if we look carefully, they have asked us for an answer to which the objection is the premise given to us. In simpler words, we have to look for something that is not verifiable as per the premise.

A) It is too extreme
B) The premise also states in some way that our knowledge is limited, hence this is incorrect
C) This states that the we can answer the question more correctly if the question is made more precise. However, that is not the case. The premise says- 'Yet we cannot just decide to define "intelligent life" in some more precise way since it is likely that we will find and recognize intelligent life elsewhere in the universe only if we leave our definitions open to new, unimagined possibilities'. Thus, this is correct.
D) Too extreme
E) Out of scope
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