Q22 - Historian: Because medieval epistemology

[Misti Duvall]

Question Type:
Weaken

Stimulus Breakdown:
Historians don't have a clear definition of medieval epistemology. So the solution is to define it as "the epistemological beliefs of medieval epistemologists." Meaning: if any medievel epistemologists were for or against any epistemological claim, then that claim is part of medieval epistemology.

Answer Anticipation:
Wowza. That's a LOT of epistemology and one wordy stimulus. Since I just want to analyze the logic of the argument, I'm going to make this simpler by replacing some tricky terms with something easier to manage. So let's say: Historians don't have a clear definition of medieval epi. So the solution is to define it as the epi beliefs of medieval epi scholars. Meaning: if any medieval epi scholars were for or against any epi claim, then that claim is part of medieval epi. I shortened "epistemology" to "epi," but you can substitute with anything as long as you're consistent.

Correct answer:
(E)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) For each answer, ask: does this make conclusion of the argument less likely? (A) does not. We don't care who might have shared beliefs with medieval epi scholars - as long as the scholars held the beliefs, that's fine. Eliminate.

(B) Similarly, we don't care how the epi scholars got their beliefs, just that they had them. Eliminate.

(C) So? If the epi scholars had a couple of tangents, that's ok; we can still read their writings about epi. Eliminate.

(D) Also irrelevant if some of the epi scholars disagreed with each other. If they had an opinion about it at all, it's medieval epi according to the argument. Eliminate.

(E) Bingo, this answer would present a problem for the argument. If we don't know which medieval thinkers were actually epi scholars, it's going to be pretty hard to figure out whose beliefs to include. And the "clear" solution presented in the conclusion is no longer so great.

Takeaway/Pattern:
If you see tricky language in a stimulus, substitute it with something else. I once had a student analyze an argument by substituting the word "cake." Just make sure you're consistent.

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