The question is not asking which answer choice is equivalent to the sentence in the stem. It's asking us to find an answer choice from which we could deduce the sentence in the stem. If E is true, then all Germans (except for Marx) are idealists. Of course it then follows that all German philosophers (except for Marx) are idealists, so we can indeed draw the conclusion in the stem. So E is correct, and no word is missing.
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I believe some people, including me, are confused with the right choice. Today I read the question again and suddenly realized my mistake. The statement needs to be inferred from the choice. Usually, it is the other way round.

All German philosphers, except for Marx, are idealists.

From which of the following can the statement above be most properly inferred?

Infers that Marx is not German1. Except for Marx, if someone is an idealist philosopher, then he or she is German.

Infers that Marx is not German2. Marx is the only non-German philosopher who is an idealist.

Infers that Marx is not a philosopher 3. If a German is an idealist, then he or she is a philosopher, as long as he or she is not Marx.

Infers that Marx is not a German philosopher 4. Marx is not an idealist German philosopher.

Infers that philosopher Marx is German and is not idealist. Else, all Germans are idealist. So all German Pilots, except Marx, are idealist. All German cooks, except Marx, are idealist. Since, per choice E, with exception of Marx, all Germans are idealist. Therefore, correct to infer the above statement that all German philosophers are idealist 5. Aside from the philosopher Marx, if someone is a German, then he or she is an idealist.

It cannot be D, because D doesn't states that All German philosophers are idealists (except for Marx of course). Answer D just states that Marx is not an idealist german philosopher.

I think OA misses word "philosophers", Aside from the philosopher Marx, if someone is a German PHILOSOPHER, then he or she is an idealist.

Is this from 1000 CR ? If it is, then I ll be carefull, cause it contains some really lousy constructed questions and answers.

All German philosophers, except for Marx, are idealists.

From which of the following can the statement above be most properly inferred?

D) Marx is not an idealist German philosopher.

E) Aside from the philosopher Marx, if someone is a German philosopher, then he or she is an idealist.

Why is D wrong?

Here you must be careful to read the question: it asks which answer choice will let you draw the conclusion in the stem. It is *not* asking you which answer choice is a correct conclusion based on the stem. The question is set up 'backwards'.

So if you start with D, that 'Marx is not an idealist German philosopher', would it follow logically that 'All German philosophers besides Marx are idealists?' No, you only have information about Marx, not about any other German philosophers. So D is out. E on the other hand, is really just a rephrasing of the stem, so you can certainly draw the conclusion in the stem if you know answer E.
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Let me try and break this down...

Question - Which of the answer choices from can the question stem be properly inferred? Not the other way around. Or in other words once the answer choice is established as a premise, the question stem can be inferred.

Since everyone pretty much arrives at option E, lets analyze the statement in detail.

Aside from the philosopher Marx, if someone is a German, then he or she is an idealist.

All germans except for marx are ideaists...

It can be inferred that all german philosophers (Since they are german) are idealists. So would all german doctors, assasins and bus drivers.
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Ankur - How would you explain this statement?

Aside from the philosopher Marx, if someone is a German, then he or she is an idealist...


I would explain it as below

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Option A: The prompt talks about German philosophers who are not Marx. Option A talks about all philosophers except Marx. This subtle difference makes Option A incorrect.

Option B: If Marx is a non-German philosopher who is an idealist, the correct inference would be All non-German philosophers, except Marx are non-idealists. Option B is incorrect.

Option C: This option reverses the conditions of an idealist and a philosopher. Therefore, it is incorrect.

Option D: This is subtle. If Marx is not an idealist German philosopher, there would be doubts such as "is Marx not an idealist?" or "is Marx not a German?" or "is Marx not a philosopher?" Because of so many doubts, option D is incorrect.

Option E: This option establishes Marx as a philosopher. It also undoes the problematic reversal observed in Option C. Therefore, E is the correct answer.
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KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

E

Read carefully! You're asked to pick the choice from which the statement can be derived, and that's (E): If, as (E) says, anyone who is a German philosopher is an idealist except for the philosopher Marx, then all German philosophers except for Marx are idealists. That being the case, it would certainly be true that, as the stimulus says, with the exception of Marx, all German philosophers-these folks being a subset of all Germans-are idealists. Now while (E)'s claim that all German philosophers are idealists may sound a bit absurd to you (perhaps you know some German philosophers who aren't idealists), we're concerned with strict logic here, not content.

(A) tells us that except for Marx, if someone's an idealist philosopher, then he or she is German, which is precisely the opposite of what we need: Knowing that all idealist philosophers (except Marx) are German doesn't prove that all German philosophers are idealists, because there could be other kinds of German philosophers. Since the stimulus statement tells us that Marx is a German philosopher who's not an idealist, (B), which contradicts this, is wrong. (C) lets us conclude that German idealists who aren't Marx are philosophers, but we need to conclude that German philosophers (except Marx) are idealists. As for (D), like the stimulus statement, it tells us that Marx isn't an idealist German philosopher, but we need a statement that ensures that every other German philosopher besides Marx is an idealist.
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The answer choice D is not incorrect, but answer choice E is better. I doubt whether GMAT allows that much ambiguity.

Tamalmallick13 That would be a problem, but D would only work if we had been asked to infer an answer from the given statement. The question is asking us which ANSWER would allow us to infer the given statement, so it's kind of a reverse question. D only tells us about Marx, so we can't infer anything about other philosophers.
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