Vincent: No scientific discipline can study something that cannot be measured, and since happiness is an entirely sub...

Skylar on June 13, 2020

@gideon, happy to help!

Vincent claims:
- Scientific disciplines cannot study things that cannot be measured
- Happiness is an entirely subjective experience
- So, happiness cannot be measured

Yolanda claims:
- Like optometry, happiness relies on self-reporting
- Optometry is a scientific discipline

We are asked to identify what Vincent and Yolanda would disagree over.

(A) is incorrect. Vincent explicitly says that happiness is entirely subjective, but Yolanda does not specifically comment on the topic. Since we don't know what Yolanda thinks, we cannot say that they would disagree.

(B) is incorrect. Yolanda explicitly says that optometry is a scientific discipline, but Vincent never comments on optometry. Since we don't know what Vincent thinks, we cannot say that they would disagree.

(C) is correct. Vincent clearly implies that scientific disciplines cannot study the subjective since these experiences cannot be measured. Therefore, Vincent disagrees with this answer choice. On the other hand, Yolanda clearly implies that scientific disciplines can rely on subjective reports, as supported by the example of optometry. Therefore, Yolanda would agree with this answer choice. Since Vincent disagrees and Yolanda agrees with the claim, we can say that the two disagree over the truth of the statement, making (C) correct.

(D) is incorrect. Vincent says nothing about optometry, so we do not know his opinion. Moreover, we do not know that Yolanda thinks happiness research and optometry are exactly equal. That would be too strong of an assumption to support.

(E) is incorrect. Vincent only implies that entirely subjective experiences cannot be measured, not the other way around. We do not know enough about what either person thinks in this case to say that they would disagree.

Does that make sense? Please let us know if you have any other questions!