Conservative: Socialists begin their arguments with an analysis of history, from which they claim to derive certain t...

Marissa on January 12, 2020

Why E?

Why is E incorrect here? Why is C incorrect.

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Marissa on January 12, 2020

Sorry, why is E correct?

Skylar on January 12, 2020

@Marissa-Avnaim,

We are looking for the point of issue between the conservative and the socialist.

The conversative states that socialists analyze history to find trends that inevitably lead to a socialist future, even though this inevitability is only true in retrospect and not in the daily progress or occurrence of history. The socialist states that history is analyzed so that socialists can understand it and use this understanding to work towards transforming capitalist institutions, which would be unnecessary work if socialists believed history was inevitable.

(C) is incorrect because the socialist does not argue in support of the inevitability of socialism and the conversation does not focus around the justification of one side's argument. If it did, we would likely see something like "Your argument is not justified because..." in the passage. However, the conversation presented here focuses on the points being argued rather than the argument itself. Moreover, the socialist argument is presented last, so it would be harder for the conservative to critique its justification without explicitly outlying the criteria needed for an argument to be justified. Also, the socialist's argument suggests that socialists do not think the outcome of history is inevitable, so it is not arguing for the justification of arguments that support inevitability.

(E) is correct because it identifies the disagreement between the conservative and socialist - whether or not socialists analyze history so that they can find trends that lead inevitably to a socialist future. The conservative believes that they do (because these inevitable trends are only present in retrospect, not in the actual making of history), whereas the socialst believes that they don't (because if they did, there would be no point to actively working to transform capitalist institutions).

Does that help? Please let us know if you have any other questions!