#24 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[sherrilynm]

Can someone explain why D is wrong? Thanks!

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi Sherrilyn,

The author of this passage defines what kind of language mathematics can be seen as in the second sentence of the paragraph: "...mathematics is a kind of language—a systematic contrivance of signs...." This definition should immediately lead you to answer choice (B): mathematics can be considered a language because it constitutes a systematic collection of signs.

As for answer choice (D), I'm not sure where you see evidence of a language being defined as something which confers explanatory power on scientific theories. There is a debate brought up in the passage concerning whether the language of mathematics necessarily corresponds in certain ways to scientific knowledge, but no one questions whether this means that mathematics is a language or not.

Let me know what you saw as evidence for choice (D) and I'll try to provide you a better explanation of why choice (D) is wrong.

[crispycrispr]

Hi,

I was choosing between (B) and (C), and ended up choosing (C) partly because I saw (B) and thought "it can't be that easy," and partly because the passage says "The application of such a highly artificial system to the physical world, they claim, results in the creation of a kind of statement about the world." I thought that was their reason--that math created a kind of statement about the world, so math is a language. And I also wasn't so sure about (B) because of the last clause of the sentence before that, "the criteria for the authority of which are ..." This terrible writing honestly just confused me and doesn't make sense. Does "which" refer to a system of signs or language or both?

[Poonam Agrawal]

Hi crispy,

Often times the questions that begin with, "according to the passage," are more simplistic than we expect. So, once you've found the text evidence, you don't need to look any further - that's why answer choice (B) is correct here.

Answer choice (C) is incorrect because the support you've quoted is much weaker. We can't necessarily say "a kind of statement" is equivalent to language. It's better for us to use that second sentence from paragraph one that directly says, "some thinkers hold that mathematics is a kind of language," to support answer choice (B).

It sounds to me like the sentence (without the crazy language) reads: math is a kind of language because it is a systematic contrivance of signs, and things that qualify as language must have internal coherence, elegance, and depth. But you don't necessarily need to understand that second part of the sentence to answer this question, as answer choice (B) refers to the first part of the sentence. Hope that helps!

[cd1010]

Hello -- I was picking between B and D for this one, and ended up choosing D.

Basically, I thought that the question was more targeted than a basic definition question.

The official explanation refers to the first sentence which I agree does define language as "a systematic contrivance of signs." But the second sentence then says what language does: "results in a kind of statement about the world". To me this is the link about why math is even brought up to begin with when we're talking about scientific explanation (i.e. the question of what it means to resort to math when you want to explain something in science (sentence 1).

So, I went to the last sentence of the paragraph, which shows the link: "Accordingly, what matters in the sciences is finding a mathematical concept that attempts, as other language does, to accurately describe the functioning of some aspect of the world".

For me, the core conceptual link in the passage is:
Language: Statement about the world
Math as a language: Statement about science / explaining something about science

In other words, first and last sentence talk about what math DOES as a language, which I felt like is really the argument of the passage, rather than just the definition of language as a system of signs.

This might be too complicated, but basically, I think 1st and last sentence of the passage can be used to argue for D?

[Chandler H]

Hello -- I was picking between B and D for this one, and ended up choosing D.

Basically, I thought that the question was more targeted than a basic definition question.

The official explanation refers to the first sentence which I agree does define language as "a systematic contrivance of signs." But the second sentence then says what language does: "results in a kind of statement about the world". To me this is the link about why math is even brought up to begin with when we're talking about scientific explanation (i.e. the question of what it means to resort to math when you want to explain something in science (sentence 1).

So, I went to the last sentence of the paragraph, which shows the link: "Accordingly, what matters in the sciences is finding a mathematical concept that attempts, as other language does, to accurately describe the functioning of some aspect of the world".

For me, the core conceptual link in the passage is:
Language: Statement about the world
Math as a language: Statement about science / explaining something about science

In other words, first and last sentence talk about what math DOES as a language, which I felt like is really the argument of the passage, rather than just the definition of language as a system of signs.

This might be too complicated, but basically, I think 1st and last sentence of the passage can be used to argue for D?

Hi CD,

You definitely read the passage carefully, and that's always a good thing. However, I think you may be making a few too many logical leaps as you attempt to argue for answer choice (D).

You're correct that the passage implies that languages "accurately describe the functioning of some aspect of the world" at the end of the first paragraph. However, this is something that language DOES, not something language IS. Just because languages can accurately describe the functioning of some aspect of the world, or because they can create a statement about the world, doesn't mean that those aspects define "language." After all, you could argue that (for example) a painting can also do those things, but that does not necessarily make painting a language.

We only get a hard definition for the word "language" in that first sentence—"a systematic contrivance of signs." This phrase is presented as synonymous with the word "language." Therefore, we know that (B) is correct.

Does that make sense?

[cd1010]

Ok, thanks! I think the wording of the question confused me. Since it said "... math can be considered a language because", which to me is not exactly the same as asking "what is the definition of a language". But, I won't go into literary theory in thinking about difference between IS vs DOES as it relates to language, and will try to keep the LSAT test maker's hat in mind!