Self-study
Much of the best scientific research of today shows that many of the results of earlier scientific work that was regarded in its time as good are in fact mistaken. ███ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ █████
Structure: Statements in Tension
The stimulus makes a few claims that might seem to be in tension with each other. First, we're told that much of today's best scientific research shows that scientific work considered good in the past produced many mistaken results. We're also told that scientists are "above all concerned to discover the truth," which might lead us to conclude that scientists should ignore this mistaken scientific work from the past. But instead the stimulus tells us that it is valuable for today's scientists to study the accounts of earlier scientific work.
Analysis: Ways to Reconcile
There isn't really much of a tension in this stimulus. The claim is not that scientists should accept the mistaken results of earlier scientific work, just that it is "valuable" for them to study the firsthand accounts of earlier scientific work. This might be because studying these accounts will help them avoid similar errors to the ones that led to the mistaken results in the first place.
22.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██████
a
Many firsthand accounts ██ ████████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ██ █████████
Incorrect. Even if "many" of these firsthand accounts are not known to be mistaken, this doesn't explain why it is valuable to study those accounts when we know the work they describe led to mistaken results.
b
Lessons in scientific ███████████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ██████████
Correct. (B) effectively explains why it can be valuable to study these earlier accounts, especially if describe scientific work whose results are known to be mistaken: because those accounts can teach important lessons in scientific methodology, which can presumably help scientists in their goal of discovering the truth.
c
Scientists can make ████████ █████████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██ █████████
Incorrect. (C) would mean that the scientists who did the earlier scientific work could have made other valuable contributions to science in their own time. But (C) doesn't explain why it is valuable for scientists today to read accounts of earlier scientific work.
d
There are many ██████████ █████ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██████████ █████████
Incorrect. (D) might seem like a good reason for more scientists to read earlier scientific work, but that's only if you assume that being familiar with earlier scientific research is a good thing. In other words, if you picked (D), you might have assumed that being familiar with earlier scientific work was valuable, but (D) doesn't actually explicitly state that or explain why it is valuable, which is what we need to reconcile the tension in the stimulus.
e
Some of the ██████ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██████████ █████
Incorrect. We don't know that this scientific research even needs to address earlier scientific work directly. We're looking for an answer choice that explains why studying earlier accounts of scientific work is valuable to today's scientists, and (E) doesn't do that.