PrepTest 158, Section 4, Question 22
Historian: Because medieval epistemology (theory of knowledge) is(93 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(8 more words not shown)
- AMedieval epistemologists held(10 more words not shown)
- BThe epistemological beliefs(10 more words not shown)
- CThe writings of(11 more words not shown)
- DSome medieval epistemologists(12 more words not shown)
- EThere is much(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Let's slow the vocabulary down. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge: questions such as how we know something and why we should trust what our senses tell us. The historian wants a useful way to decide which claims belong in its medieval version.
The proposed definition mostly repeats the same word: medieval epistemology consists of the epistemological beliefs of medieval epistemologists. My first reaction is that repeating the label doesn't explain much. If someone defines an unfamiliar creature by saying it's “one of those creatures,” I'm still waiting to learn what it is.
Then the historian gives a membership rule for the ideas: a claim goes in if any medieval epistemologist believed it. If another believed the opposite, that opposite goes in too. That makes me pause. Are we calling something the belief of a whole field merely because one person believed it?
But the historian says the claim is part of the field, not that everyone accepted it. A collection of beliefs can include competing views. So we shouldn't automatically treat this as a claim that all medieval thinkers agreed.
What we’re looking for
The weaken question makes us locate the conclusion: this definition supposedly solves the problem of deciding what belongs. I'd initially wonder whether allowing opposing beliefs makes the definition unworkable. I'm not yet sure that objection succeeds, so I'll look for an answer that shows why the proposed test wouldn't settle what to include.
Working the answers
- A
A belief can belong to medieval thought even if ancient thinkers held it too. Sharing some ideas across periods doesn't stop us from describing the beliefs held in each period. The proposed definition doesn't require every medieval belief to be new.
- B
A belief about knowledge can be influenced by a belief about something else. For example, someone's understanding of the physical world could influence their views about perception. That connection doesn't establish that their views about knowledge fall outside the proposed definition.
- C
The definition includes these thinkers' epistemological beliefs, not everything they ever wrote. A diary entry or a poem unrelated to knowledge needn't be included just because an epistemologist wrote it. C points to material the definition already leaves out.
- D
The proposed definition allows opposing views to belong. Giving an actual case of disagreement doesn't, by itself, show that the definition fails: a history of a subject can cover competing positions. Also, the passage's conditional discussion of opposite beliefs didn't establish that such a disagreement actually occurred. D supplies that fact, but we still need a reason it makes the definition unusable.
- ECorrect
Whose beliefs are we supposed to collect? If there is substantial disagreement about which medieval thinkers count as epistemologists, the proposed rule hands us another unresolved question. We can't simply check whether an epistemologist believed a claim without first deciding who qualifies.
The historian offers the definition as a solution to uncertainty about what belongs in the field. E shows why it may just move the uncertainty to the membership of the group. Even knowing exactly what a particular thinker believed wouldn't settle whether those beliefs count under the definition if that person's status remains disputed.
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