Self-study
Historian: The central claim of the "end-of-history" theory is that history has reached its final stage of development. █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ████
Stimulus Breakdown
A historian discusses the "end-of-history" theory. This theory claims that we've reached the last stage of history, because the ideology of democracy has ultimately won out over other competing ideologies. But the historian has an objection to the end-of-history theory: it's impossible to stand outside of history to determine whether it actually has ended or whether there's more to come.
Objective: Identify an Inference
When we're looking for an inference, we should be careful to stay within the scope of the historian's statements. The historian makes statements about what the end-of-history theory claims, as well as a statement about our own ability to judge the passage of history. The correct answer will be closely linked to one or more of these statements, and will not require significant assumptions.
To avoid making unwarranted assumptions, we should be sure to read carefully and with close attention to detail when judging whether each answer choice is truly supported by the historian's claims.
3.
Which one of the following ███ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███████████
a
We can never ████ ███████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ██ █████
End-of-history theory claims that history has ended—but the historian also states that we can't judge if history has truly ended. By combining these statements, we can infer that it's impossible to know if end-of-history theory is true, because knowing if the theory is true would require knowing if history has really ended.
b
Advocates of the ██████████████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████████ ██ ████████
The historian doesn't discuss whether end-of-history theory, or any other understanding of history, is "ideological." (B) goes beyond the scope of the historian's statements, so can't be inferred.
c
If we were ██ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████████████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ██ █████
(C) actually contradicts the historian's statements: the historian directly states that it's impossible to judge whether history has ended, a claim central to end-of-history theory.
d
It is impossible ███ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ██ █████
(D) is very close, but overstates the historian's claims. Contrasting with the correct answer (A), we can see the difference: (D) talks about whether end-of-history is actually true, while (A) just talks about our ability to know if end-of-history theory is true.
The historian says we can't know if history has ended, but that doesn't mean history can't have ended, which (D) would require.
e
Ideological developments are ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ████████
The historian doesn't weigh in on whether ideology is the key to history, so we can't make inferences on that topic. Perhaps end-of-history theorists believe this, but the historian's statements don't go that far.