#18 - The tendency toward overspecialization in the study

[srcline@noctrl.edu]

Hello

I am having a hard time with this question. Would the principle be: in order to have an understanding of something, one should have an understanding of a certain thing that influenced that thing?

This was the reason I choose B, because the stimulus mentions the fact that Arabic porcelain had an influence on Spanish artisans. The latter half of the stimulus says that "a proper understanding of Arabic porcelain is indispensable for proper understanding of spanish porcelain. Wouldn't this mean that in order to understand spanish artisians one needs to understand Arabic porcelain?





Thankyou
Sarah

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi Sarah,

Your statement of the principle here looks good to me. The thing that seemed to trip you up is assuming (even when the answer choice didn't say it) that similar events of earlier centuries influence the historical events of this century. That might be true, but we just don't know - and if those earlier events did not influence current events, then that doesn't meet the principle at all.

E, on the other hand, makes it clear that Aristotle was influenced by Plato - after all, Plato was his mentor.

Does that help?