May 2020 LSAT Section 3 Question 22

Historian: Because medieval epistemology (theory of knowledge) is a complex subject, intellectual historians have, u...

Shula on November 6, 2023

The backup plan of answer choice A makes perfect sense

Hi there, I chose A because I believed that A weakened this conclusion. However, after reading the explanation of why A is incorrect, I still believe that A weakens. The back up plan written in A's explanation says, "Until recently, intellectual historians didn't have a definition of medieval epistemology. We can define medieval epistemology as the epistemological beliefs medieval epistemologists hold. If we want to know whether medieval epistemology includes a belief, we'll ask whether any medieval epistemologists believe it. If they do, it's part of medieval epistemology. If any believe the opposite, the opposite claim is part of medieval epistemology. But, medieval epistemologists' beliefs depended on their non-epistemological beliefs. So, we maybe shouldn't define medieval epistemology as the epistemological beliefs medieval epistemologists hold." However, I think once we insert answer choice A and continue with the opposite of the conclusion, it makes sense. It says, "But, medieval epistemologists' beliefs depended on their non-epistemological beliefs. So, we maybe shouldn't define medieval epistemology as the epistemological beliefs medieval epistemologists hold." My rationale is that since medieval epistemologists' beliefs depended on their non-epistemological beliefs, it is reasonable that the "epistemological beliefs" of these people—which is the opposite of "non-epistemological beliefs"—should not be used for the purpose of historians. I don't know if I made myself clear. I hope someone can help clarify my confusion. Thank you so much!

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Emil-Kunkin on November 9, 2023

It looks like you're taking about B here for anyone looking in the future.

I don't see a reason why the fact that their epistemological belief were connected to other belief means their epistemological beliefs cannot be used by historians. It's a futile effort to truly desperate the intellectual history of one field from that of all other fields, just as it is bad history to try to study one thing completely stripped of its context. The author is simply arguing that in order to understand what epistemology was to medieval people, we need to look at the epistemological beliefs of those people. The fact that those beliefs were related to other beliefs doesn't really seem relevant. This would be like saying "we cannot use newtons writings about gravity to understand his view of gravity, because his views on gravity were related to other beliefs of his'"