#19 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose/Function

[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!

[mhassan72]

The question asks what was the point of mentioning Hume in the passage, when doing it under timed condition, I chose B, because as a philosophy major I knew who Hume was and how important of a role he played in soft determinism. However I couldn't support this answer directly from the text, I can't even see how it is implied. The other answers was terrible too, so it made me more confident in my choice, I would like to know is this a safe way to approach a question like this and if there is support can someone point it out to me.

[Claire Horan]

Hi Mhassan72,

I think your reasoning is good, especially when faced with a time crunch. As a philosophy major, you probably know lots of philosophers, but you probably still realize that Hume is more famous than Ayer. It was right that you looked for other reasons in the text in order to rule out the other choices. You see that Hume is only mentioned once, showing that the idea wasn't completely out of the blue when Ayer proposed it and had, in fact, been thought of by someone who is well respected in philosophy. You can also justify your answer by thinking generally about how a more famous person can bolster a theory or idea held by someone who is less famous and that this is a likely purpose for the author.

[kcho10]

Hello,

Other explanations say that the author of Passage B agrees with Ayer's view, but I don't see any indication of that. It just says that 'it has long been argued' but that doesn't necessarily mean that the author agrees, does it? Is it because the whole passage is talking about Ayer? Is that how we know that the author agrees with Ayer/Hume?

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi Kcho,

The best that we can say with certainty about Passage B's attitude towards Ayer is that the author believes Ayer's arguments are a possible rebuttal to the deterministic view held by some neuroscientists and that Ayer's position should be considered
or addressed.

We can tell that the author thinks that Hume is at least a somewhat respectable figure in this field since the mention of Hume is being used to add credence to Ayer's position. We can also infer that the author believes that Hume is a somewhat familiar name to the intended audience, since no good background or explanation was given for who he was.

Beyond this, I don't see much evidence for figuring out the author's attitude towards either of these two. Let me know if this helps

[christinecwt]

Hi Team - can anyone explain why Answer Choice (C), (A) and (E) are incorrect?

[Robert Carroll]

christine,

Sure!

Answer choice (A) isn't correct because there's no indication that the author of passage B is critical of Ayer for "ripping off" Hume or anything like that - the reference to Hume seems like an interesting extra fact that implies that Ayer may be on the right track because he's not the only person who thought of this idea. It's not intended as a criticism of Ayer for lack of originality.

Answer choice (C) is not correct because the author doesn't agree that soft determinism is of only historical importance at all. The author thinks it's relevant now - discussions by philosophers in earlier decades and centuries are relevant to neuroscientific research today.

Answer choice (E) doesn't really work at all. The soft determinist view doesn't conflict with the mechanistic account of the brain at all, so adding a reference to David Hume, who was in line with soft determinism, to argue against soft determinism seems like the opposite of what's going on here.

Robert Carroll