PrepTest 111, Section 2, Question 16
Philosophers of science have long been uneasy with(447 more words not shown)
The reference to the formulation(18 more words not shown)
- Aidentify one of(6 more words not shown)
- Billustrate one context(9 more words not shown)
- Chighlight the chief(9 more words not shown)
- Dprovide an example(9 more words not shown)
- Eprovide an example(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
These biologists are trying to find laws for biology comparable to gravity in physics. The universal struggle for existence is one proposed law; the clocklike DNA claim is another. So why include this example? To show what their effort to make biology a science of universal laws looks like.
Working the answers
- A
The struggle is called an engine of biological history, which makes this tempting. But the writer includes that claim to illustrate an approach to biology, not primarily to establish what drives biological history. The content of the proposed law and the reason for mentioning it are different things.
- B
This illustrates the search for a universal rule, not an application of uncertainty. The search reflects the preference for certainty introduced earlier.
- C
There is a dispute, but this particular notion isn't identified as its chief cause. It's an example of one side's approach.
- DCorrect
Now connect the example to the group: determinists are the biologists who favor universal, necessary explanations. Seeking biological equivalents of physics’ universal laws (paragraph 2) is precisely that approach, even though the determinist label appears later.
- E
Historical contingency belongs on the other side of the contrast. This example presents a universal force governing biological history, not an outcome dependent on the particular course events happened to take.
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