PT158.S1.P3.Q14 > Analytics

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Passage A is adapted from an essay by historian Christopher Ricks; passage B is from the introduction, by historian Paulina Kewes, to a book in which Ricks's essay appears.

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Rosenthal's Purpose · To question definition of plagiarism

Rosenthal's answer · The required postmodern answer

Postmodern answer = there's no difference between plagiarism and things that people don't think are plagiarism. It's just about power; if people in power don't like certain copying, it's plagiarism.

Rosenthal's assumption · Plagiarism doesn't involve a moral issue; it's about power

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Ricks' perspective · Political history should involve moral considerations

Although there's no universal moral standard, that doesn't mean moral standards shouldn't exist. (Not sure what "political history" means, but clearly Rosenthal's book is an example of it.)

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Intro topic · Plagiarism

Accusations of plagiarism in history have been very fluid, and are influenced by commercial, artistic, and legal views. Sometimes the same act has been called plagiarism and not plagiarism.

Ricks' perspective · Critical of historical approach to ethical issues

He thinks it leads to moral relativism, which he thinks is bad.

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Author's criticism · Ricks paints with too broad a brush

Some historical approaches might be good, even if others are bad.

Concession · Ricks is right to criticize some scholarship

Not all moral standards are just about power, and it can be wrong to project modern-day ideologies onto past events. Ricks is right to make these points.

Author's perspective · Ricks is too extreme

Some historical scholarship can still be good, even if there's a lot of bad scholarship out there. Recognizing different historical understandings of plagiarism doesn't imply any agreement with one or more of those understandings.

Passage Style

14.

Both passages are concerned with █████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████

Question Type

Implied

We’re looking for a question that both authors want to answer.

Split Approach: After passage A, eliminate any answer choices that contain a question that author A isn’t concerned with answering. Then, after passage B, eliminate any remaining answer choices that contain a question that author B isn’t concerned with answering. There will only be one answer choice that contains a question that both authors want to answer.

Sequential Approach: We know that both authors are concerned with answering questions about the historical understanding of plagiarism, but we’ll have to use POE on the answer choices to choose the one question that both authors are concerned with answering.

How did the ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████████

Author A doesn’t say anything about “the modern concept of the author.” Instead, he criticizes one author’s argument about the historical concept of plagiarism. This is enough reason to eliminate (A). Author B doesn’t address the modern concept of the author either.

During what historical ██████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███████ ██████████ ██████████

Author A thinks there are moral criticisms against plagiarism, but he never addresses when these criticisms originated. This is enough reason to eliminate (B). Author B also suggests that there have long been moral criticisms against plagiarism, even though they’ve been applied differently. But she doesn’t address the question of when these criticisms originated either.

How has the ████████████ ███████ █████ █████████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ █████

In P3, Author A differentiates between moral standards and power, arguing that the fact that “no moral standard is universal does not of itself entail that moral standards are nothing but expressions of power.” But he doesn’t discuss how the relationship between moral standards and power has changed over time. This is enough reason to eliminate (C). Author B thinks that author A is right to dismiss “the postmodern reduction of moral standards to expressions of power,” but she doesn’t discuss how the relationship between the two has changed over time either.

What are the ███████████ ███████████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██████████

Author A does address this question. He argues that, while Rosenthal’s book suggests that the only difference between plagiarism and simple imitation is the perspective of those in power, there are actually moral standards that differentiate the two, and these moral standards should be addressed when considering the historical understanding of plagiarism. But author B never addresses the differences between plagiarism and imitation, so we can’t say that both authors are concerned with answering (D).

How is the █████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██ ██████████ █████████████

Both authors are concerned with answering this question. Author A argues that Rosenthal wrongly dismisses the moral dimension of the historical understanding of plagiarism. While Rosenthal thinks that a historical understanding of plagiarism is an issue of power, author A thinks that it’s an issue of morality. Author B agrees that the historical understanding of plagiarism does involve moral standards, even though they’ve been applied in various ways. But she also thinks that there are historical understandings of plagiarism that differ from our own, and that author A is too extreme in his dismissal of historical approaches.

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PrepTest 158 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 14

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