Q20

[giladedelman]

Hi,

Can you explain to me why q16 is D and why q20 is C? Thanks.

Jason

[giladedelman]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for posting! Let's look at the lines in question:

"Despite decades of rhetoric from historians of science about the need to unite issues deemed "internal" ... and those considered "external" ... that dichotomy has proven difficult to set aside."

So, the author is saying that historians of science have been paying lip service to an idea, but have had trouble putting it into practice. Wow, I didn't even realize that's almost the exact wording of answer (C). In other words, the author uses the term "rhetoric" to emphasize the fact that the historians of science have just talked about these ideas, compared to actually acting on them.

Does that answer your question?

[LSAT-Chang]

Hello Gilad!
But what about the word "innovative"? Do we just assume that it is considered an innovative idea? Since there was no reference of a description like that, I thought it may have been a bit extreme in suggesting that that idea was innovative. Is this an example of something where we can give a little room to the lsat test-makers?

[shirando21]

why is D incorrect? it's not talking about the forms, but rather contents only?

[giladedelman]

(D) is incorrect because the passage never suggests that historians of science had an "excessive" concern for form at the expense of content. It just says that Hathaway has a different approach to form.

Also, we're being asked specifically about the use of the word "rhetoric." Here, the word is being used with respect to the internal/external dichotomy, not to some debate over form vs. content.

Thanks for the question!

[deedubbew]

why not E?

[btwalden]

"Despite decades of rhetoric from historians of science about the need to unite issues deemed "internal" ... and those considered "external" ... that dichotomy has proven difficult to set aside."

So, the author is saying that historians of science have been paying lip service to an idea, but have had trouble putting it into practice. Wow, I didn't even realize that's almost the exact wording of answer (C).

I don't really see how rhetoric implies all this.

1. they were unable to do something
2. they were innovative ideas
3. they were even trying to put something into practice.

I can see how this could be right, but I don't see how with all these assumptions, D. isn't a better answer.

[ganbayou]

I'm still confused why A is the answer...
line 49~"...that dichotomy has proven difficulat to set aside"
Is this talking about the idea that scientists cannot put the idea into practice?
I thought it is the opposite...Haraway tries to unify, so if they want to say the scientists cannot do that, wouldn't it say something like "the dichotomy has proven difficult to put together"??
(I thought dichotomy means the 2 sep. things that Haraway tries to put together...really confused)

[ohthatpatrick]

You said A was the answer, but it seemed like you knew that (C) is the answer.

I think you just have a different mental definition of dichotomy from the real one. Once united, you could no longer call two halves a dichotomy.

If there is a dichotomy between things "internal" and "external" to science, then there is a sharp divide between the two.

If people are urging for us to unite the "internal" and "external", then they want do get rid of the dichotomy. They don't think there should be a sharp dividing line.

Historians of science have been pushing for Uniting, for getting rid of the dichotomy. But ... that dichotomy "has been hard to set aside" ... i.e., we haven't gotten rid of it.

Does that make sense?

[hnadgauda]

Let's go to paragraph 4 where line 45 is and read it carefully. This paragraph is about Haraway being innovative. Let's look at the author's tone. Looks like the author is exasperated with the "decades of rhetoric" by historians of science and applauds Haraway's attitude of ignoring the need to unite issues internal and external to science.

A: clear and effective writing isn't relevant here.
B: modes of language isn't relevant.
C: This answer makes sense with our prephrase.
D: form isn't relevant here.
E: the historians aren't promoting Haraway's writing style. wrong.