John Locke’s political philosophy, which holds that revolution against

E it is.. E compares John's Philosophy and Thomas's belief appropriately and also uses the right Idiom Different from.

John Locke’s political philosophy, which holds that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different than Thomas Hobbes, who believed that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.

A. which holds that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different than Thomas Hobbes, who believed that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.

B. holding that revolution against an unjust government is an obligation as well as a right, was markedly different from that of Thomas Hobbes, believing that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.

C. holding that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different than that of Thomas Hobbes, who believed that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.

D. which holds that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different from Thomas Hobbes, who believes that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.

E. which holds that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different from Thomas Hobbes’s belief that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.

Philosophy is being compared to belief.... This is not a hard SC question IMO.

Do we have an OA for this?
I didn't see any formal post.
Didn't find it in google either.

John Locke’s political philosophy, which holds that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different than Thomas Hobbes, who believed that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.

There is a 3-2 split among answer choices on following aspects
1. which holds vs holding(I feel this is not preferable in this case.)
2. different from vs different than(Incorrect idiom)
3. is vs was(Philosophies still exist so not correct.)
4. comparison between two philosophies.

(A) which holds that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different than Thomas Hobbes, who believed that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.
error 2 plays the spoilsport here.

(B) holdingthat revolution against an unjust government is an obligation as well as a right, was markedly different from that of Thomas Hobbes, believing that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.
error 1 repeats here
as well as instead of a contradictory meaning word changes the intended meaning.
philosophy of Hobbes does not believe anything he does.

(C) holding that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different than that of Thomas Hobbes, who believed that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.
errors 1 and 2 repeat here.
philosophies are compared correctly but contrast in between them is not shown properly because the phrase who believes that refers to philosophy improperly.

(D) which holds that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different from Thomas Hobbes, who believes that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.
error 4 comparison has made the sentence wrong here.

(E) which holds that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different from Thomas Hobbes’s belief that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.
Correct choice resolving all the errors.

C uses the wrong idiom different than
philosophies are compared correctly but contrast in between them is not shown properly because the phrase who believes that refers to philosophy improperly instead of Hobbes.
I hope u got my point.

Also u posted twice. U can avoid duplication by removing one.

IMO E. Error: compares locke's philosophy to thomas hobbe. illogical.

A&D out because of the mentioned error
B&C out because "," followed by "-ing" modifier is wrong as the modifier is modifying the noun just before it.

Leaves us with E as correct answer

Bunuel OA is missing. Please update.

________________
Done. Thank you.

Dear AnthonyRitz IanStewart GMATGuruNY VeritasPrepBrian GMATNinja VeritasPrepBrian VeritasPrepRon ccooley DmitryFarber egmat quixx23,

How to eliminate choice B. and C. decisively?

Q1. For choice B., apart from tense usage, is there any other reason to reject choice B.,
According to Veritas Advanced Verbal's solution on Q39:

No other reason is given on why choice B. is wrong. I thought we can use past simple to just describe events in the past.

Q2. For choice C., what's wrong with the V-ing modifier. I think it can modify a noun as well. So, "holding" can modify "john Locke's political philosophy"

John Locke’s political philosophy, holding that revolution against an unjust government is not only a right but also, in certain cases, an obligation, is markedly different than that of Thomas Hobbes, who believed that sovereign power cannot be overthrown.

However, according to the solution:


Here is the official example which demonstrates V-ing modifying noun between a comma pair:
The yield per acre of coffee berries varies enormously, because a single tree, depending on its size and on climate and altitude, is able to produce enough berries to make between one and twelve pounds of dried beans a year.

B is easy. "believing" begins a (1) participle phrase (2) at the end of the sentence (3) set off by a comma. Given these three criteria, the participle phrase must modify a non-adjacent word earlier in the sentence. But "believing" can only logically modify the adjacent "Thomas Hobbes." So this is a modifier error. And, hey, yes, it's weird to say "was different" when the two philosophies continue to exist and be different, but I'd lean more on the very concrete modifier error than anything else here.

C is harder. It's clearly the closest wrong answer, but all I've really got is that

(1) the "holding" participle phrase modifier sounds a little weird, though I can't pin any specific grammar error on it,
(2) the idiom "different than" might be wrong, though I utterly hate to look at idiom issues, and
(3) C is a tiny bit less parallel than E. You less often see the "apostrophe-'s'" possessive first and the "that of" possessive second in this sort of transitive parallel structure. I guess it's not strictly wrong, but all other things equal I'd take the version that syncs these up better. Plus the sentence uses a participle phrase modifying "Locke's philosophy" in the first part and a relative clause modifying "Hobbes" in the second part. That's a significant shift. This is probably my best basis for concern with C.

I hate to really rely on any of these, but, if I have no other choice, then taken together maybe they're enough. While none of these issues are unequivocally dispositive, I'd certainly pick E over C.

Nobody, including the official Veritas solution, is claiming that a participle phrase cannot modify a noun. It certainly can. The solution simply seems to suggest that there's also another way to read C, with a different meaning. I'm not quite seeing it, but maybe there's something I'm overlooking.

There's no great reason to throw out C other than the idiom flaw: "different than."

The "holding" phrase should definitely act as an adverbial modifier, referring to the clause ("Locke's philosophy is different than that of Hobbes") rather than the noun ("philosophy"). However, this isn't necessarily a problem. In that case, the "holding that" modifier simply explains in what way Locke's philosophy is different. One could argue that this is less clear and direct than the OA, and perhaps even a little weird, but I'd like the wrong answers on an SC to all be wrong, and for that, we're left with the lousy idiom. However, if you look at some of the most obnoxious SC questions (for instance, those in the Advanced OG), you'll find that sometimes the right answer is just right because it's a little more clear or a little more obviously parallel, so maybe this would pass muster on the test.

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