QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption
CONCLUSION: Freudian theories should be abandoned in favor of other theories.
REASONING: The other theories are more successful at predicting human behavior.
ANALYSIS: This seems like a straightforward argument, but we’ve only been shown one aspect of the theories: how well they predict human behavior.
There may be other reasons to prefer a theory. Since we only have evidence about prediction, a necessary assumption is that we ought to prefer theories with better predictive power.
___________
- “The causes of human behavior” is something distinct from “predicting human behavior.” So even if this assumption is false the argument isn’t hurt.
- CORRECT. Yes, the opposite “is not scientifically preferable” wrecks the argument’s only evidence.
- Not necessary. It could have had great success, as long as the other theories had even more success.
- Not necessary. It doesn’t matter how you measure predictive success, as long as the other theories could predict better.
- Practicality actually wasn’t important to the argument: predictive power was the only evidence given.
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