Self-study
P1
What it means to "explain" something in science often comes down to the application of mathematics. ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ █ ████████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████
Thinkers' perspective ·
Science is about finding a mathematical explanation for things in the world
Math is a language that can describe the world.
P2
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Question ·
What's the relationship between language and what it refers to?
Linguists' answers ·
Either language corresponds to things, or it's purely a matter of convention
P3
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Supporters of "convention" answer ·
Language depends on what people accept
A statement is true only when there are no plausible alternatives that might make one question it.
Analogy to science ·
Mathematical statements about the world can be seen as true based on agreement
A more persuasive mathematical statement can come along and displace an old one.
P4
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Implication for linguists ·
If language is merely convention, what does it tell us about the world?
Analogous implication for scientists ·
If mathematical models/explanations are merely convention, what role do they play in scientific knowledge?
The author's main point is that we need to answer this question.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
26.
Based on the passage, linguists ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ █
Question Type
Implied
Other’s perspective
This is an Inference question from the perspective of the linguists who
a
speakers of English ████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████████████ █████ █████████
This fits with the view of these linguists, who
b
speakers of English ██ ███ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ █████████
We care about whether or not people agree that the statement is true, not whether the words used are the most elegant way to communicate something. An inelegant statement can still be accepted as true.
c
"The ball is ████ ███████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████████████ █████ █████████
This would be the view of
d
"ball" and "red" ████████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ █ ████████ ████████████
For conventionalists, “ball” and “red” don’t have meaning because they actually refer to an entity and a property respectively. Instead, they have this meaning because people agree that they have this meaning.
e
"ball" and "red" ███ ████████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████
The linguists in this question don’t care if something is a mathematical concept that attempts to describe some relationship; they believe that language has meaning because people agree that it has meaning.