gmatbull wrote:
An examination of corruption provides the basis for rejecting the view that an exact science of society can ever be constructed. As with all other social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy, it is intrinsically impossible to measure corruption, and this is not merely due to the fact that social science has not yet reached its goal, achievable to be sure, of developing adequate quantifying techniques. If people were ready to answer question about their embezzlements and bribes, it would mean that these practices had acquired the character of legitimate, taxable activities and had ceased to be corrupt. In other words, corruption must disappear if it is to be measurable.
Which one of the following most accurately states a hidden assumption that the author must make in order to advance the argument above?
(A) Some people believe that an exact science of society can be constructed.
(B) The primary purpose of an exact science to quantify and measure phenomena.
(C) An intrinsic characteristic of social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy is that they cannot be measured.
(D) An exact science of social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy cannot be constructed.
(E) An exact science can be constructed only when the phenomena it studies can be measured.
What is the issue with D?
CONCLUSION: An examination of corruption provides the basis for rejecting the view that an exact science of society can ever be constructed. WHY?
Because as with ALL OTHER social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy, it is intrinsically IMPOSSIBLE TO MEASURE corruption.
Hence, our goal is to find the Assumption, which (i) CONNECTS the impossibility of measuring phenomena studied TO the impossibility of constructing an exact science and (ii) MUST BE TRUE so that the conclusion holds.
(A) Some people believe that an exact science of society can be constructed.
We don't care about what some people believe. Eliminate (A).
(B) The primary purpose of an exact science is to quantify and measure phenomena.
This is tempting. But if we negate (B), it becomes: The PRIMARY purpose of an exact science is NOT to quantify and measure phenomenon. But if so, the ability to measure phenomena CAN BE a NECESSARY requirements for something to become an "exact science". Negation of (B) does not break the conclusion. Eliminate (B).
(C) An intrinsic characteristic of social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy is that they cannot be measured.
This is just a re-statement of a premise. Eliminate (C).
(D) An exact science of social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy cannot be constructed.
This is a slight re-statement of THE CONCLUSION. But we are finding the ASSUMPTION so that the conclusion holds. Eliminate (D).
(E) An exact science can be constructed ONLY WHEN the phenomena it studies can be measured.
Notice "ONLY WHEN". So if phenomena studied CAN NOT be measured, the exact science CAN NOT be constructed. (E) successfully does 2 things:
(i) it connects the impossibility of measuring phenomena to the impossibility of constructing an exact science.
(ii) it must be true for the conclusion to hold. If we negate (E), it becomes: An exact science can be constructed NOT ONLY when the phenomena it studies can be measured. This would break the conclusion: if we can construct an exact science even when we can not measure the phenomena studied, we can not say that because we can not measure social phenomena like corruption, we can not construct an exact science.
Hence, (E) is correct.