Q12

[camerojg]

I would appreciate an explanation as to why the Barbu's quote assumes answer D, and not answer A. My best explanation is that answer A is explicitly stated, thus not making it an assumption. As for D, I'm not having much success making sense of it. Thanks in advance.

[romanmuffin]

Gonna have to agree; I picked A pretty confidently and was shocked to see D as the correct answer... can someone help?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

So we have to focus on the quote in lines 21-23 and ask ourselves "what is Barbu assuming in his argument?"

Barbu is suggesting that Aeschylean drama is proof of the emergence within ancient Greek civilization of the individual as a free agent. If Aeschylean drama is proof that what is true in Aeschylean drama is true of the Greek civilization overall, then Aeschylean drama would need to reflect Greek civilization in at least that respect - so that's where answer choice (D) comes from.

Let's look at the incorrect answers:

(A) attributes a causal relationship between Aeschylean drama and the emergence of the individual in ancient Greek civilization. It should not have said "helped to initiate."
(B) is similarly flawed as answer choice (A). We don't know that it was Aeschylean drama that introduced/helped to initiate a new understanding (or any understanding for that matter) of the individual.
(C) is unsupported. There's no need for Aeschylean drama to do anything other than reflect the way the individual is perceived in ancient Greek civilization.
(E) is irrelevant. Barbu's argument is about the ancient Greek civilization - not the modern Western world.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any further questions on this one...

[Dyounker]

But how do we know that D is indicative of Ancient Greek society as a whole?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

So remember, we don't need to know that the view Aeschylean drama accurately reflected Greek society. We just need to know that Barbu believed that it did. In lines 21-24, Barbu said that Aeschylean drama is proof of the emergence of the individual within Greek society. So according to him, it accurately reflects the way personal autonomy was perceived in ancient Greek society.

[imrudals]

Hi,

I can kind of understand how (d) works, but how does it explain the "emergence" within ancient Greek? If we assume (d), couldn't it be that the perception of an individual as a free agent existed before the Greek civilization?

Thanks!

[Cavetisy]

The question stem is not asking you to select an answer choice that explains the "emergences," rather the question stem is asking for an "assumption Barbu makes in lines 21-23.

[phoebster21]

I agree with the other comments. When line 21 says "proof of the emergence within ancient..." it makes sense that emergence could mean "well, we didn't view individuals as free entities before and [i]now[i] we do. So, as to why D is the right answer, in that regard, I'm still lost.

However, I did notice one thing that may help. Answers A and B both fail to specifiy what exactly about individuals these dramas represented, namely, their individual freedom.

Answer A just says "a new understanding of the person"- maybe they understood that people are essentially horrible and selfish
Answer B just says "the role of the individual" - which could mean their roles as slaves to the gods. who knows.

[andrewgong01]

"(A) attributes a causal relationship between Aeschylean drama and the emergence of the individual in ancient Greek civilization. It should not have said "helped to initiate."
(B) is similarly flawed as answer choice (A). We don't know that it was Aeschylean drama that introduced/helped to initiate a new understanding (or any understanding for that matter) of the individual."
(E) is irrelevant. Barbu's argument is about the ancient Greek civilization - not the modern Western world.
"Answer A just says "a new understanding of the person"- maybe they understood that people are essentially horrible and selfish
Answer B just says "the role of the individual" - which could mean their roles as slaves to the gods. who knows."




My interperation is different for "A" and "B" and "E" mean

The quoted text from Lines 20-23 to me sounds like Barbu is saying that the drama is proof that in Ancient Greece there was the emergence of individualism/ free agent.


To me A means closer to that the drama has helped us modern people to better understand Ancient Greece from a new perspective where maybe people in Ancient Greece did believe in the idea of free agent. Hence, what would make this wrong is also the phrase "intitaite a new understanding" as we do not know if this was the first piece of proof that caused us today to change our perspective on the ways we examine Ancient Greece. If anything, this drama can not have been the first piece of proof because the drama was cited as evidence for this proposition (free agent was an ideal in ancient greece);; hence something else must have come before the drama to have caused us to come up with the proposition first that in Ancient Greece the notion of the free agent emerged.

To me, B would be similar in "A" in meaning where it is insinuating that it is the drama that caused us today to change our views on how individualism played a role in Ancient Greece. However, from the text, the drama was cited as "evidence" of the validity of the view itself.

To me "E" just means that that the notions of the free agent that may have existed in Greece ( proof of this existence is the drama) is similar to the way we view freedom in the "modern Western world" today. I didn't see this as irrelevant. Instead, I think it is a degree issue in that it said "most" and "Western" is somewhat out of scope as we do not know how the free agent ideals developed in Ancient Greece are similar to modern Western ideals. Also "freedom" is a broad term that could refer to civil liberties as oppose to just the idea of individuals having control over their life.

In other words, I understood "A" and "B" to have reffered to the way people today view Ancient Greece and not how the drama affected people in Ancient Greece to view themselves as free agents.