#14 - Must Be True

[Adam Tyson]

I'd say that is the first, best, and easiest way to eliminate that answer, ct325, since author A says nothing about prevarication (lying or deliberately avoiding the truth). We need something that BOTH authors show a concern with, and the evidence that they are concerned with it must come directly from the passages and not from any assumptions we might make about what they think of the issue.

A secondary reason for eliminating it is that even author B isn't primarily concerned with lying, but is only using that concept as a springboard to talk about the bigger issue, which is conscious intention.

[flexbubbleboi]

I had trouble ruling out D on this one. It seems to me like the use of conscious intention (ascribed to humans) and the lack thereof (ascribed to nonhuman animals) is a type of qualitative difference. B and D seemed like equally correct answers to me.

Passage B of course overtly addresses the question of whether the difference is qualitative or quantitative (ln. 61). Is the reason D wouldn't apply to Passage A because the first passage assumes that there's a qualitative difference (as in lines 6-11 where the author says nonhuman animals can't attribute mental states to others)? Thus, this isn't a question Passage A is addressing, but rather an assumption within which they ask their more focused question about conscious intention?

It seems a little fuzzy to me, given the wording of the second paragraph, to truly distinguish between what the author is assuming in Passage A and what they are asking, so I'm not sure my thinking here is on the right track.

[Robert Carroll]

flex,

You're missing what answer choice (D) said. The difference in that answer is not between humans and nonhumans, but between nonhuman primates and other animals. You correctly claim that the passages are crucially exploring the difference between human communication and nonhuman animal communication. That's not what answer choice (D) is about, though - it's one kind of nonhuman vs other kinds of nonhumans.

Robert Carroll

[flexbubbleboi]

*facepalm* I see it now, thank you