Two Doctrines have been Greatly Influential in this Century.

Question: Two doctrines have been greatly influential in this century. The first holds that the explanation of any historical event must appeal to economic factors. The second attempts to account psychologically for all historical events, especially in terms of early childhood experience. Both doctrines, however, are mistaken. Certainly, there have been events that were due both to economic forces and to the nature of the childhood experiences of major participants in the event.

The argument depends on assuming which one of the following?

1. The first doctrine precludes any noneconomic factors in explanations of historical events.
2. The second doctrine places importance only on childhood experiences.
3. Historical events are influenced as much or as little by economic factors as by psychological factors.
4. One is likely to find that both economic and psychological explanations have been proposed for any given historical event.
5. Appeals to both economic and psychological factors are needed to understand any historical event properly.

Answer: A

Explanation: In this GMAT critical reasoning question, an assumption is an implied hypothesis. So we are looking for something that is implied in the argument. In case it is wrong or maybe disable the argument.

Let’s go through each of the options and choose the one that fits the best to the given condition.

Option A: The first doctrine precludes any noneconomic factors in explanations of historical events.
Option A states that the first doctrine precludes the noneconomic factors while explaining the historical events. This statement is necessary for the argument to hold. If we don’t assume this, the conclusion will be invalid because the conclusion says that both doctrines are wrong due to the fact that there are some historical events that can be based on economic and psychological factors. Since the statement is required for the argument to hold, Option A is correct.

Option B: The second doctrine places importance only on childhood experiences.
According to Option B, the second doctrine gives importance only to childhood experiences. It need not be assumed as the second doctrine could give importance to other psychological factors and still be mistaken. It has specifically said that the second doctrine only places importance on childhood experiences. This statement rules out the possibility that the second doctrine appeals to the economic factors also and also rules out everything that is needed to make the conclusion hold true. So, Option B is incorrect.

Option C: Historical events are influenced as much or as little by economic factors as by psychological factors.
Option C states that historical events are influenced as much or as less by economic factors as they are by psychological factors. This statement is irrelevant because we are not talking about the comparison between economic and psychological factors in the passage. We are talking about the two doctrines and how they affect many historical events. We do not need to assume the comparison between economic factors and psychological factors in order to arrive at the conclusion. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: One is likely to find that both economic and psychological explanations have been proposed for any given historical event.
Option D states that one can find that both economic and psychological explanations are proposed for any historical event. This statement also need not be assumed as no doctrine can appeal to only economic to psychological factors and still explain all the historical events. So, there is no need for both explanations already made for any given historical event. Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Appeals to both economics and psychological factors are needed to understand any historical event properly.
Option E states that appeals to economic and psychological factors are required to understand any historical event properly. This statement can not be an assumption as there can be an event that requires an explanation from one of the factors but no event requires both the factors. So, Option E is incorrect.

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