Logical Reasoning

PT156 · S2 · Q13 Santayana recommends that we study

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Santayana recommends that we study history to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Conclusion (But)

We should not follow Santayana's advice to study history in order to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Intermediate Conclusion (For, Thus)

Studying history never enables anyone to avoid past mistakes.

Intermediate Conclusion

None of the crises we face now are the same as those our ancestors faced.

Evidence (since)

History consists of unique and unrepeatable accidents.

Evaluate

Whenever we do Main Conclusion / Role, we listen for upside down arguments (80% of these questions have the main conclusion appear earlier the supporting ideas). 65% of them have a Pivot / Rebuttal conclusion 25% of them have a First Sentence conclusion

So when the paragraph opens with an Attribution, we are already anticipating the Pivot / Rebuttal type conclusion, and then sure enough the 2nd sentence gives us that Pivot + Pushback.

That second sentence is clearly an Author Opinion, "we should not follow his advice" and clearly Supported. Everything after "For" is support. History is unrepeatable, so today's crises are new, so history cannot help us dodge old mistakes. Each of those claims supports the next, and the chain ends at the final sentence.

The final sentence, with its "Thus," looks like the main conclusion, and that is the trap. Ask what it is there for. Why does the author tell us that studying history never lets anyone avoid past mistakes? To justify rejecting Santayana's advice. The last sentence supports the second sentence, not the other way around.

Goal

Look for a restatement of "we should not follow his advice," which means we should not study history to avoid making mistakes of the past.

13.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument above?

  1. People should not study history,

    Bad Match

    The author never says people should not study history at all, only that they should not follow Santayana's reason for doing so. And nothing in the argument claims studying history leads to misunderstanding.

    6% picked this

  2. Every historical period is different

    Premise

    This is a paraphrase of "history consists of unique and unrepeatable accidents," the author's starting premise. It supports the claim about crises, which supports the claim about studying history, which supports the rejection of Santayana. It is the bottom of the chain, not the top.

    3% picked this

  3. Although the crises one generation

    Premise

    This doesn't look anything like "we shouldn't study history to avoid mistakes of the past", which is the only sense in which we need to judge it wrong. It turns out to be referencing the 2nd to last claim, which was one of the Intermediate Conclusions.

    5% picked this

  4. Studying history is valuable, but

    Unsupported

    The author never says studying history is valuable. The argument rejects Santayana's reason and offers no alternative reason, so the claim that history is worth studying for some other purpose comes from outside the passage.

    6% picked this

  5. Correct

    One should not try to

    Why this is right

    Santayana's advice is to study history in order to avoid the mistakes of the past, and the author's position is that we should not follow that advice. Saying one should not try to avoid repeating past mistakes by studying history is the same recommendation in different words.

    Skill tested: Main Conclusion · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    80% picked this

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