The Philosopher’s Beard - 1 (News Based RC) | Verbal Ability (VA) & Reading Comprehension (RC) - CAT PDF Download

We've prepared a reading exercise based on an article from The Philosopher's Beard, a respected source known for its rich content. After reading, there are questions to test your understanding and critical thinking.
This exercise is beneficial for practicing reading comprehension with news articles. Reading newspapers helps you digest information faster, understand quickly, and improve your vocabulary. Our curated exercise focuses on popular news topics to enhance your skills.

Date: 15 June 2023

Passage

The article "The Problem With Stories" delves into the human inclination towards narrative thinking and its implications. Human minds are wired to comprehend events through stories, where events are linked and made meaningful by human intentions. However, the real world operates on causal processes largely indifferent to human sentiments. This discrepancy between narrative understanding and empirical reality forms the crux of the article.
The enlightenment era marked a significant shift, introducing empirical science as a means to understand the world's complexity. This approach, focusing on mindless processes rather than human-centric narratives, led to breakthroughs like the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. Despite scientific advancements, stories continue to exert a strong psychological hold, often overshadowing scientific understanding in areas like evolution, where only a third of educated adults in the U.S. accept the scientific account.
The article defines a story as a series of events meaningful in human terms, where characters act based on reasons, and outcomes are interpreted in relation to their intentions. This narrative cohesion, self-referential in nature, is assessed more on plausibility than verifiability. Surprises in stories, although conventional, are essential elements.
The problem with stories lies in their default role as our model for understanding the world, leading us to seek humanly meaningful explanations for phenomena that are better explained by emergent causal processes. This narrative mindset is evident in our understanding of complex social phenomena like economic inflation, the COVID pandemic, and climate change. Stories also fuel conspiratorial thinking, reducing complex realities to simpler, human-centric narratives.
In politics, stories dominate due to their appeal to voters who largely operate on narrative thinking rather than empirical arguments. This dichotomy places politicians in a challenging position, needing to balance real-world competence with the ability to tell compelling stories for electoral success. The article cites the UK's Brexit referendum as an example where a fact-light, story-focused campaign triumphed over an argument-focused approach, leading to significant political and governance consequences.
The article concludes by acknowledging the deep-rooted nature of narrative thinking and the challenges in countering it. While it's unrealistic to expect complete rational consistency, there's a call for greater resistance to the allure of stories and more support for non-narrative analysis, especially in journalism, which predominantly relies on storytelling.
Q1: What is the primary argument presented in "The Problem With Stories"?
(a) Stories are essential for understanding complex social phenomena.
(b) Human minds prefer narrative explanations over empirical science.
(c) Political campaigns should focus more on factual information than storytelling.
(d) The real world operates independently of human-centric narratives.
Ans: (d) The real world operates independently of human-centric narratives.
Sol: The passage emphasizes that while humans tend to understand events through narratives, the real world functions on causal processes that are indifferent to human narratives.

Q2: According to the article, what is a significant consequence of the narrative mindset in politics?
(a) Politicians tend to avoid complex issues.
(b) Voters are generally well-informed about policies.
(c) Story-focused campaigns often overshadow fact-based arguments.
(d) Political decisions are always based on empirical evidence.
Ans: (c) Story-focused campaigns often overshadow fact-based arguments.
Sol: The article highlights that in politics, compelling stories often have more appeal than fact-based arguments, influencing electoral outcomes and governance.

Q3: What does the article suggest about the role of stories in understanding phenomena like climate change and the COVID pandemic?
(a) Stories provide the most accurate understanding of these phenomena.
(b) They simplify complex realities into more manageable narratives.
(c) Scientific explanations are always preferred over narrative ones.
(d) These phenomena are too complex to be understood through any means.
Ans: (b) They simplify complex realities into more manageable narratives.
Sol: The article points out that stories often reduce complex realities like climate change and the COVID pandemic into simpler, human-centric narratives.

Q4: What challenge does the article identify in countering the narrative mindset?
(a) The lack of educational resources to teach empirical thinking.
(b) The difficulty in changing a deeply embedded human propensity.
(c) The absence of narrative elements in scientific explanations.
(d) The reluctance of politicians to adopt empirical arguments.
Ans: (b) The difficulty in changing a deeply embedded human propensity.
Sol: The article acknowledges the challenge in countering the narrative mindset due to its deep-rooted nature in human psychology.