Distressed by his own personal tragedies, the Roman philosopher Cicero once asked himself whether a wise person should try to achieve the Stoic ideal of complete emotionlessness. Cicero reasoned that, however desirable the goal may be, a wise person could never attain it, since emotions are not simply irrational urges. They are, rather, a product of one's estimate of the goodness and badness of the events, people, and actions one witnesses.

Which of the following is an assumption required by Cicero's reasoning?

A. Wise people inevitably evaluate at least some of the things they observe.

B. Irrationality makes evaluation of what one observes impossible.

C. Wisdom precludes attempting to attain what one cannot.

D. If evaluations are based only on reason, then they are inaccurate.

E. A wise person will not evaluate what cannot be directly observed.

Answer: A. Wise people inevitably evaluate at least some of the things they observe

Explanation: What is a wise person, if not someone who knows that there is much more to know, that is, knows that there is always something to learn. In such an understanding of wisdom, all phenomena, human actions, are the subject of human study, that is, knowledge, not some irrational explanation. As man is a complex being, there are certainly emotions in that complex being as a reaction to what is seen as external events and actions, and this is perceived and evaluated for the purpose of cognition. This means that everything a wise person witnesses must produce some emotion, if not all, at least some of of the things he observes. Because the facts are that emotions are not irrational, but real experiences of a stimulus, and it is based on those emotions that one evaluates whether something is good or bad.