Q24 - Sociologist: Romantics who claim

[dan]

24. (E)
Question Type: Strengthen the Conclusion
The sociologist implies that evil people join institutions, thereby making the institutions themselves evil. So, evil people come first, and then evil institutions follow. This argument would break down if we learned that the nature of the institution actually determines the characteristics of those who join it. Answer (E) strengthens the argument by striking down this possibility.

(A) discusses doing good and evil, but the issue is really whether the people themselves are evil to begin with.
(B) is a detail distortion (from good and evil to perfect and imperfect).
(C) is out scope (the issue is not whether people should or shouldn’t be optimistic, but rather whether people are inherently evil).
(D) fails to get at the issue: do inherently evil people make institutions evil or do institutions make people evil?


#officialexplanation

[ttunden]

Here is my explanation which is a little bit more easy/simple.

So basically the sociologist is saying the Romantics are wrong. They posit that Imperfect Institutions CAUSE people to become EVIL.

The Sociologist says Romantics are wrong because they misunderstand the above causal relationship. He says that institutions are just collections of people.

OK so basically we have a big gap from saying institutions are merely(keyword for SOLELY) collections of people to his conclusion that Romantics are incorrect. Whatever answerchoice we select has to help the sociologist in proving the Romantics wrong about the causal relationship they posit.

A- this is just irrelevant. It won't help close the gap nor connect to the Sociologist's conclusion. IT does not show they misunderstand the causal relationship.
B - same with A. Irrelevant. Not gonna help us get to the Sociologist's conclusion

C - irrelevant, and probably doesn't help.
D - irrelevant and doesn't help
E - ahh perfect. So this helps the sociologist and shows that the romantics misunderstand the causal relationship they posited( institutions make people evil) Best of the bunch and is relevant to what the Sociologist was saying and helps his argument.