PT153.S4.P4.Q27

PrepTest 153 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 27

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P1

Social historians have noted that European social and political thought of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was marked by the popularity of "grand theories," influential intellectual movements such as Freudianism or Marxism that attempted to account for a broad range of historical phenomena with a single, ambitious explanation. ███

Intro · Grand theories
"Grand theories" attempted to account for a broad range of historical phenomena with a single, ambitious explanation.
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Examples · Freudianism and Marxism
Freudianism: everything can be explained by psychology. Marxism: everything can be explained by economics.
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Grand Theories · Suggest historical determinism
History develops in a deterministic way
P2

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Height of grand theories · Likened to scientific fact
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Decline of grand theories · Failed predictions; failed and unjust political systems
Grand theories were not the universal explanations they purported to be. They had only limited explanatory power.
P3

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Consequence of Decline · Nostalgia for determinism
We don't believe in the deterministic historical explanations anymore but we kind of still want to.
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Author's Argument · Grand theories' decline is an opportunity
Historical explanations can now focus on the contingent, the particular, and the novel; it can provide narrative satisfaction without having to view history as fully determined.
Passage Style
Single position
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27.

It can be inferred from ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████

a

Since history is ███ █████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ █████████████

Anti-supported. The author doesn’t believe we cannot hope for narrative satisfaction.

18%
b

Since historical contingency ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████████████

Anti-supported. The author wants us to give attention to historical contingency.

11%
c

There are enough ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ████████

Anti-supported. The author doesn’t believe history is subject to universal laws. It’s “vain” to hope for historical inevitability. (Note that the reference to “laws that constrain rather than necessitate” doesn’t support this answer, because laws that constrain aren’t universal laws in the sense that “universal laws” is used in the passage.)

10%
d

The works of ████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████

The author doesn’t suggest that we should use grand theories to study the 19th century. Although the author does acknowledge that Marxism and Freudianism were not implausible explanations of events up until the time those theories were formed, this doesn’t constitute a recommendation to use those theories. Those theories can still be wrong or worse than other theories even if they still provide plausible accounts of 19th century events.

15%
e

The study of ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ █████████

Supported. The author wants to avoid a historical perspective that views history as fully determined or subject to universal truths or laws.

47%

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