Self-study
Reviewer: Many historians claim, in their own treatment of subject matter, to be as little affected as any natural scientist by moral or aesthetic preconceptions. ███ ██ ███████ ██████ ██████ █████ █████████████ ██ ████████████ ███ ██ ██ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ████████████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that many historians who claim that they are objective are actually not objective. This is based on the fact that it’s easy to find examples of non-objective historical explanations.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author points to examples of non-objective explanations in order to show that the historians who say they are objective are actually not objective. But the author never establishes that the examples of non-objective explanations came from any of the historians who say they’re objective.
20.
The reviewer's reasoning is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██
a
takes for granted ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ██████
The author never suggests that scientific objectivity “should” apply in other fields. The author simply tries to show that certain historians are not objective. Whether they should or should not be objective is not something the author has an opinion about.
b
offers evidence that ██████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████
The fact there are examples of non-objective explanations doesn’t undermine the author’s conclusion. Although these examples don’t establish the conclusion, that doesn’t mean they tend to show that the conclusion is false.
c
fails to recognize ████ ████ ██████████ ██████ █████████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████████
Whether many historians use methods that are “intended” to compensate for prejudices doesn’t affect the author’s reasoning. The author has found examples of non-objective explanations. The issue is whether these come from the historians who say they’re objective.
d
takes for granted ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██ █████████
The author assumes that some of the non-objective explanations come from the historians who say they’re objective. We know this is an assumption, because if it weren’t true, then the author’s examples wouldn’t show that the historians who say they’re objective are non-objective.
e
fails to recognize ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████████████ █████████ ██████████ ███ █████
Whether explantions that embody ideologies are false has no impact on the argument. Those explanations can still be non-objective, even if they’re not false.