Logical Reasoning

PT102 · S2 · Q16 Political scientist: The dissemination

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Political scientist: The dissemination of political theories is in principle able to cause change in existing social structures.

Conclusion (it follows that)

With respect to political theory, there is a special role for those outside the university context to render it into accessible, clear language.

Evidence

Disseminating political theories has the potential to cause change in existing social structures.

But all political theories are formulated in a university setting, leading to complex, confusing language that alienates outsiders.

Evaluate

This is a pretty brutal argument to understand / engage with. The author seems to be someone who is hopeful that the right political theory could be disseminated and cause change in existing social structures.

i.e. Society has problematic feature X, but if the right political theory were to spread, it could help change society for the better, fixing X.

But ... here's the problem. These political theories originate in the university setting, so they end up using nerdy language that is off-putting to people who aren't in the university setting. Those people outside the university are crucial, however, when it comes be being agents of change.

So ... what we need is someone outside the university context who can render these political theories into accessible, clear language. That way these theories will be heard and understood and acted upon by important agents of change who can help cause change in existing social structures.

Goal

It's hard to guess a correct answer here. There's a lot of looseness in the argument being made, so it's hard to know what the test expects us to be thinking about.

Let's look for an answer that seems to capture a thought the author is definitely thinking or an answer that, when negated, definitely weakens the argument.

16.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

Persons outside academic settings are
Too Strong: most important
We know that "many individuals outside academia are important agents of change", but nothing in the passage commits the author to thinking that people outside academia are the most important agents of change.
9% picked this
Persons within academic settings who
Out of Scope: attempt to change
The passage didn't seem to necessarily imply that the political theories being formulated in the university setting were being formulated by people determined to change existing social structures. If we negated this and said that the people formulating the theories aren't attempting to change social structures, that wouldn't really weaken the author's argument. The author was envisioning a causal sequence in which the theories get formulated in a university setting, then people from outside the university render the theory into accessible/clear language, and then many individuals from outside academia that are important agents of change hear these plainspoken theories and use them to change social structures. Nothing in the author's story involved the university theory-creators getting out there and hitting the streets, trying to change social structures.
11% picked this
Persons outside academic settings are
Out of Scope
Out of Scope: better left out Causal Backstory for Premise The author hasn't taken a position on whether it's good or bad (better or worse) that all political theories are formulated in the university setting. She just said they are all formulated there. We don't know if she holds the opinion that non-university people would probably mess up the initial formulation and should thus be left out. This answer is what some would call a Premise Booster, because it has nothing to do with the conclusion "that there's a special role for people outside the university context who can render a political theory into clear and accessible language". It's just taking the premise that "all theories are formulated in the university setting" and trying to fill in a backstory for that ... "because it's better to leave non-university people out of the initial formulation".
3% picked this
Persons outside academic settings stand
Out of Scope
Out of Scope: stand to gain more The author never implied that people outside academic setting have more to gain from disseminating political theories than do university people. The author was just thinking that these theories emerge from the universities in really convoluted language that normal outsiders won't grab on to and run with. For the author, the specialness of people outside academia is their ability to take this theory and render it into clear normal language. It's not that they have more to gain from disseminating the theory. it's that they will be more effective at disseminating the theory because of their clearer, more accessible language.
10% picked this
Correct
Persons within academic settings are
Why this is right
Our author Assumes this Difference. The reason she thinks there's a special role for people outside the university context is that they will be better at taking convoluted academic language and rendering it into accessible, clear language. If we negate this, it would say, "People within academic settings are at least as willing and at least as able to write in a straightforward way as are people outside the academic setting". If that's true, then why would we say there's any special role for the outsiders? The insiders are just as good and just as willing to take a densely written political theory and turn it into clear and accessible language.
Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
68% picked this

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