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Zorluk: ZorNecessary Assumption

Paleoanthropologist: Excavations at the high-altitude Qangla Cave yielded stone butchery tools alongside fossilized fauna dating to 32,000 years ago. During this glacial epoch, high-altitude regions experienced severe winters that made permanent, year-round human habitation impossible without specialized thermal garments. Because bone sewing needles—essential for fashioning fitted thermal garments—first appear in the regional archaeological record only 24,000 years ago, early humans could not have inhabited Qangla Cave on a year-round basis 32,000 years ago.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the paleoanthropologist's argument depends?

  1. A
    Any human population that possessed bone sewing needles inhabited high-altitude caves on a permanent, year-round basis.
  2. B
    The stone butchery tools discovered at Qangla Cave were manufactured exclusively by anatomically modern humans rather than other hominid species.
  3. Bone sewing needles were not used by humans in the region significantly before the earliest date from which such needles have been preserved in the archaeological record.Cevap
  4. D
    No human population during the glacial epoch survived severe high-altitude winters anywhere in the world without occupying permanent cave shelters.
  5. E
    Early humans at Qangla Cave obtained all of their animal resources exclusively during the warmest months of the year.

Cevap

The argument depends on the assumption that bone sewing needles were not used in the region significantly prior to their earliest documented archaeological appearance.
The conclusion asserts that early humans could not have inhabited Qangla Cave year-round 32,000 years ago because needles are essential for thermal garments and needles only appear in the regional record 24,000 years ago. This inference relies entirely on equating the earliest recorded artifact date with the earliest actual historical use of that artifact. Negating the statement—supposing that needles were in fact used in the region well before their earliest surviving trace in the record—allows for the possibility that humans made thermal clothing 32,000 years ago, collapsing the argument's conclusion.

Adım Adım Çözüm

1
Identify the premises and main conclusion of the argument.
Premises: (1) Year-round high-altitude habitation 32,000 years ago required fitted thermal garments. (2) Bone sewing needles are required to make fitted thermal garments. (3) Bone sewing needles first appear in the regional archaeological record 24,000 years ago. Conclusion: Humans could not have inhabited Qangla Cave year-round 32,000 years ago.
Isolating the core argument exposes the unstated gap between evidence of absence in the physical record and the actual historical absence of the technology.
2
Determine the logical gap between the archaeological evidence and the conclusion.
The author presumes that because bone sewing needles have not been discovered in deposits older than 24,000 years, they were not utilized 32,000 years ago.
An unstated premise is needed to link the timeline of preserved artifacts to the historical availability of needle technology.
3
Apply the Negation Test to verify the required assumption.
If bone sewing needles were indeed used in the region 32,000 years ago despite not being preserved in the archaeological record, early humans could have crafted thermal garments and inhabited the cave year-round, which shatters the author's conclusion.
A statement whose logical negation destroys the author's conclusion is strictly necessary for the argument.

Anahtar Kavram

Necessary Assumption (Defender / Archaeological Gap)
Tahmini Süre:1m 30s
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Necessary Assumption

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