| Critical Reasoning Butler: April 2025 |
| April 10 | CR 1 | CR 2 |
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CR 1 Those who suffer from dissociative identity disorder are said to develop multiple personalities, called alters, so distinct from their own that some may even complain of imagined ailments. However, when supposedly blind alters are asked in writing whether they can see, they respond, “No.” Some psychiatrists attempt to explain this result by suggesting that blind alters are one part of a disassociated psyche, and it is actually another part of the psyche that responds to the question.
Which of the following challenges indicates the most serious weakness in the attempted explanation described above?
A. Why do all the supposedly blind alters respond identically in the situation described?
B. Why must the observed fact be provided a special explanation?
C. Why do the supposedly blind alters develop the delusion that they cannot see?
D. Why does the part of the psyche that answers not reply, "Yes"?
E. Why are the separate parts of the psyche the same for all subjects?
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CR 2 As per the out-of-Africa theory, the earliest homo sapiens to leave Africa crossed the Red Sea and spread along the coast of Asia, making their first major settlement in the Deccan (India, Asia) roughly 45,000 years ago. However, the discovery of 46,000 to 49,000 years old homo sapiens settlement in the Bacho Kiro caves (Bulgaria, Europe) suggests that the earliest homo sapiens to leave Africa actually spread towards Europe, migrating along either the Danube river or the Mediterranean coast.
Which of the following, if it were discovered, would be relevant evidence against the conjecture above?
A. The oldest positively identified homo sapiens fossil is dated to be 58,000 years old.
B. 6,000 years ago, the depth of the Red Sea, between Africa and Asia, was considerably lower, due to glaciation.
C. The climate at the Bacho Kiro site is more temperate than that at the oldest known Deccan site.
D. The site in Bulgaria where the fossils dated to be 46,000 to 49,000 years old has been continuously occupied since the time.
E. Some Asian sites of homo sapiens migration predate any sites found in Europe.