Self-study
P1
Intro to Topic ·
Not a lot of evidence about ancient female doctors
Main Point ·
There were female doctors in the ancient world
I'm anticipating that the rest of the passage will dive into the "evidence" for this claim.
P2
███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ █████████ █████ ████████ █████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ████████████ ████ ██ ███████ █████ ███
Premise ·
Scant written evidence indicatives that presence of women doctors were taken for granted
Author seems to be claiming that if it was such an odd thing for women to be doctors that surely there would have been more written about this. But that there wasn't is taken to be evidence that women doctors were nothing special.
Example ·
Plato's The Republic refers to women doctors
He's was not arguing that women ought to be doctors. From his argument, we can infer that he and his society simply took it for granted that women already were doctors.
P3
█████████ ███████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██████ █████████ █████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ████████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █ █████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ █████████ █ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ██
Premise ·
Women were not just midwives; they were doctors
Greek and Latin have different terms for "midwife" and "doctor." Texts suggest that they treated disease, not just delivered babies.
P4
████ ████████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████ █████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ███████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ █████████████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ █████ █████ █████ ███████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ████████████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████████
Premise ·
Medical texts cited female doctors without special comment
Author takes this to be evidence that the presence of women doctors were taken for granted, that it wasn't special.
Passage Style
Single position
17.
Which one of the following █████ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ █████ ██████████
a
So it is ████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ █ ██████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████
This doesn’t follow logically from the passage. The author never talks about constructing a complete account of women doctors’ lives. He’s just arguing that some women were doctors and that women doctors were an unremarkable part of life in the ancient world.
b
That there were █████ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ██ ██████
This is a logical continuation of the paragraph. In P4, the author says that some writers of ancient medical texts quoted male and female doctors “indiscriminately” and cited women doctors without special comment. He says this to suggest that these writers thought that women doctors were an unremarkable part of life,
c
Although the content ██ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██████ █████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████████
This doesn’t follow logically from the passage. The author doesn’t bring up the ancient writers in P4 to undermine Plato’s statements about women doctors in P2. Instead, he uses the evidence in P2 and P4 together to support his argument that women doctors were an unremarkable part of ancient life.
d
These texts indicate ████ ██████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ███ ██ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██████████████
The evidence in P4 doesn’t suggest that it’s unclear whether women were medical practitioners. The author explicitly says that writers quoted female doctors. So (D) isn’t a logical continuation of P4.
e
Nevertheless, these writers' ██████████ █████████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███████ █████████
This doesn’t follow logically from the passage. The author never suggests that ancient writings present a “conflicting picture” of ancient medical practice. Instead, he argues that a wide range of ancient writings support the claim that there were women doctors in the ancient world and they were an unremarkable part of life.