Distressed by his own personal tragedies, the Roman philosopher Cicero once asked himself whether a wise person should try to...
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
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?
Passage Analysis:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
| 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. |
|
Argument Flow:
The passage starts with Cicero's philosophical question about achieving emotionlessness, then presents his conclusion that it's impossible, followed by his reasoning about what emotions actually are.
Main Conclusion:
A wise person could never achieve complete emotionlessness.
Logical Structure:
Since emotions are based on our judgments about good and bad things (not just irrational urges), and wise people will always encounter and evaluate events around them, they cannot eliminate emotions entirely. The argument assumes that wise people will continue to make judgments about the world around them.
Prethinking:
Question type:
Assumption - We need to find what must be true for Cicero's reasoning to work. His argument is that wise people can't achieve complete emotionlessness because emotions come from our judgments about good and bad things.
Precision of Claims
The key claims involve absolute qualities - 'complete emotionlessness' cannot be achieved and emotions are 'a product of one's estimate.' We need to focus on what connects the nature of emotions to the impossibility of eliminating them.
Strategy
To find assumptions, we need to identify what would falsify Cicero's conclusion while keeping the facts intact. His logic flows: emotions come from judgments about good/bad → therefore wise people can't eliminate emotions completely. We need to find what bridges this gap and makes the reasoning valid.
This choice states that wise people inevitably evaluate at least some of the things they observe. This is exactly what Cicero's argument requires to be true. His reasoning flows: emotions come from our evaluations of good and bad → wise people will continue to make such evaluations → therefore wise people can't eliminate emotions completely. Without this assumption, we could argue that wise people might simply stop evaluating things around them, which would break Cicero's logical chain. This assumption bridges the gap between what emotions are (products of evaluation) and why wise people can't eliminate them (because they'll keep evaluating). This is correct.
This choice claims that irrationality makes evaluation impossible. This doesn't connect to Cicero's argument at all. Cicero is arguing that emotions aren't irrational urges but rather come from evaluations - he's not discussing whether irrationality prevents evaluation. This choice introduces an irrelevant concept and doesn't support his reasoning about why emotionlessness is unattainable. This is incorrect.
This suggests that wisdom prevents people from attempting impossible goals. But Cicero's argument isn't about whether wise people should attempt emotionlessness - it's about whether they can achieve it. The passage even mentions that achieving emotionlessness might be desirable; Cicero is just arguing it's impossible regardless of whether wise people attempt it. This choice addresses the wrong question. This is incorrect.
This claims that reason-based evaluations are inaccurate. This contradicts the spirit of Cicero's argument. He's suggesting that emotions come from our judgments about good and bad, and there's no indication he thinks wise people's evaluations are systematically wrong. If anything, wise people would presumably make better evaluations, not worse ones. This choice undermines rather than supports his reasoning. This is incorrect.
This states that wise people won't evaluate things they can't directly observe. This is far too narrow and specific for Cicero's broad argument. His reasoning about emotions coming from evaluations applies to all kinds of observations and judgments, not just directly observable ones. This limitation would actually weaken his argument by suggesting wise people could avoid many emotion-causing evaluations. This is incorrect.