PrepTest 108 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 23

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What it means to "explain" something in science often comes down to the application of mathematics. ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ █ ████████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████

Thinkers' perspective · Science is about finding a mathematical explanation for things in the world

Math is a language that can describe the world.

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Question · What's the relationship between language and what it refers to?

Linguists' answers · Either language corresponds to things, or it's purely a matter of convention

Supporters of "convention" answer · Language depends on what people accept

A statement is true only when there are no plausible alternatives that might make one question it.

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Analogy to science · Mathematical statements about the world can be seen as true based on agreement

A more persuasive mathematical statement can come along and displace an old one.

Implication for linguists · If language is merely convention, what does it tell us about the world?

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Analogous implication for scientists · If mathematical models/explanations are merely convention, what role do they play in scientific knowledge?

The author's main point is that we need to answer this question.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

23.

Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████

The categories of ████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ █████████ █████████████ ██ ███ ██████

If unrelated languages independently developed similar categories of physical objects, this suggests that these categories are less likely to be arbitrary choices, and more likely to reflect something essentially true about these objects. Therefore, (A) strengthens the argument that language has an essential correspondence to the things it describes.

73%

The categories of ████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████

(B) doesn’t strengthen the argument, because it’s consistent with language being based on agreed-upon conventions. If the second language evolved from the first, the conventions of the second language could have originated in the first one. (B) doesn’t suggest that two distinct groups independently came up with similar ways to describe the physical world. (Contrast with (A), in which the similar languages are independent.)

The categories of ████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ █ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████

It makes sense that speakers of the same language would categorize physical objects in the same way. The fact that speakers of the same language use the same conventions doesn’t strengthen the argument that language has an essential correspondence to the things it describes.

11%

The sentence structures ██ █████████ ██ ██████████████ █████████████ █████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ █████████

(D) talks about sentence structures, while the essentialists’ argument is about the relationship between language and physical reality. Also, (D) is about languages that have something in common: they all came from scientifically sophisticated societies. It could be this shared trait that produced the similarities in language, not the fact that there is a concrete connection between language and the physical world.

Native speakers of ████ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████

It makes sense for people to think that their language accurately describes the world. It doesn’t matter if people believe that their personal language corresponds to natural categories of objects; the essentialists argue that language actually corresponds to the physical world.

10%

PrepTest 108 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 23

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