#25 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[lsat.bea]

Could someone please explain how answer (b) is correct. It seems to me to contradict the first line of the last paragraph. This sentence states that people have a nostalgia for determinism despite the decline of grand theories, not because of it. Answer (b) says the demise of grand theories gave rise to nostalgia.

I chose (a) because it seemed to me that the passage was arguing that the concept of cognitive satisfaction is what suggests why people wish for history to proceed with clarity and logic (because viewing history as proceeding this way provides cognitive satisfaction). Where did my thinking go wrong?

Thanks so much for your help!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi bea!

Part of the confusion might be because there's an intervening cause in the passage (that I think you're skipping over) when you evaluate answer choice B. Answer choice B describes the "cognitive satisfaction" as the thing that explains (in other words, the direct cause of) why the decline of grand theories ultimately "gave rise" to nostalgia. It's not saying that the demise directly caused the nostalgia. It's saying that, when we lost the grand theories, we still had the need for cognitive satisfaction, which caused the nostalgia.

Look at the "despite" phrasing as the author's way of introducing facts that seem paradoxical but that are then fully explained by the introduction of another fact (need for cognitive satisfaction) that renders the two things (the decline and the nostalgia) consistent.

The problem with answer choice A is that it's not the "cognitive satisfaction" itself that suggests why the wish for clarity and logic is vain. Rather, the thing that "suggests why" the wish for clarity and logic is vain is the fact that there is no such clarity and logic in history. The fact that history is contingent, particular, and novel is the reason why the wish for logic is vain.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy