RC Thesis Vs. Hypothesis and org. of passage

islandersandyankees

Hey Guys,

I am doing reading comp, and I keep seeing questions on the organization of the passage. I see two things that say the passage is describing a hypothesis or describing a thesis. What is the difference between these?

Thanks!

islandersandyankees

anyone? lol

Cant Get Right

Haha, I’ll give it a shot.

So, a hypothesis is meant to explain a phenomenon. A thesis could relate to a hypothesis. Maybe the purpose of a paper is to prove a certain hypothesis wrong. The thesis of that paper would be something along the lines of, “Hypothesis X fails to explain Phenomenon Y.” A thesis is basically just the main point/purpose of the paper.

quinnxzhang

This can be a pretty thorny philosophical question, but for the purposes of LSAT RC, I think it's helpful to think about the different attitudes an author might have towards a hypothesis vs. a thesis.

Someone's hypothesis is something like a working conjecture, and not something he/she is committed to. A hypothesis has some support, but the goal is to investigate it further and possibly reject it if the collective weight of the evidence demands it.

Someone's thesis, on the other hand, *is* something he/she is committed to. The author's goal isn't to investigate a thesis, but to defend it by offering evidence and whatnot to support it.

Whether a claim is a hypothesis or a thesis will depend on context. For example, consider the claim that gun restrictions reduce gun violence. If the author talks about an experiment he/she will conduct on gun laws in a small community or his/her plan to analyze historical data on gun laws and crime statistics, then the claim is acting as the author's hypothesis. If, on the other hand, the author cites a number of studies that have found correlations between gun control and lower gun violence and explains why gun control would causally lead to lower violence, or something like that, then the claim is acting as the author's thesis.

islandersandyankees

this helps a lot!! Thank you guys! Much appreciated!!!