There is a small typo in the passage; it should read as the William James Lecture and not as William James Lecturer, wherever it appears. However this does not impact the passage.

First, let us look at the logic behind the syntax and the semantics. “Art as experience” is the name of a writing by John Dewey. We must remember that the book does not declare but through the writing, John declares that through an expressive art blah, blah …

Secondly the declaration remains valid even today and probably will also in the future and hence a simple present tense is required to describe the declaration

(A) Originally delivered as the first William James Lecture at Harvard, in 1932, John Dewey in his major writing on aesthetics, Art as Experience, declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds -
Originally delivered -- John Dewey – wrong modification

(B) originally delivered as the first William James Lecture at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds
Modification is ok, but that the writing declares is wrong

(C) Originally delivering Art as Experience as the first William James Lecture at Harvard in 1932, John Dewey in his major writing on aesthetics declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds
Right Choice -

(D) Originally delivered as the first William James Lecture at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, and John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declared that through such an expressive art, the artists and the audience communed together, an encounter that reminded
Wrong because the writing declared and also past tenses are used to describe declaration and reminding

(E) When it was originally delivered as the first William James Lecture at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declared that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience communed together, an encounter that reminds
Wrong because the writing declared.

C is the OA
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I go with B.

(A) Originally delivered as the first William James Lecturer at Harvard, in 1932, John Dewey in his major writing on aesthetics, Art as Experience, declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds

Antecedent of what was delivered is unclear. Art of experience was delivered as the first William James lecture.


(C) Originally delivering Art as Experience as the first William James Lecturer at Harvard in 1932, John Dewey in his major writing on aesthetics declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds man and mankind of their responsibilities towards each other

'Art of Experience' was John Dewey's major writing on aesthetics. Above statement does not clearly refer 'Art of experience' as John Dewey's major writing.

(E) When it was originally delivered as the first William James Lecturer at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declared that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience communed together, an encounter that reminds man and mankind of their responsibilities towards each other

Use of tenses is not parallel. 'declared that....communed together...' are in the past tense while 'encounter reminds' is not.

B & D remain.


(D) Originally delivered as the first William James Lecturer at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declared that through such an expressive art, the artists and the audience communed together, an encounter that reminded man and mankind of their responsibilities towards each other

'Such an expressive art' does not have a clear reference to a particular expressive art.

(B) Originally delivered as the first William James Lecturer at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds man and mankind of their responsibilities towards each other

Correct Answer.
All references are proper. All the tenses are in the present tense (declares, commune, reminds).

Had a tough time explaining this. Great question. Kudos.
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Originally delivered as the first William James Lecture at Harvard, in 1932, John Dewey in his major writing on aesthetics, Art as Experience, declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds man and mankind of their responsibilities towards each other

In the given sentence
Originally delivered as Lecture at Harvard is modifying John Dewey which does not make sense and hence A is incorrect.

B. Originally delivered as the first William James Lecture at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds
seems to be correct

C. Originally delivering Art as Experience as the first William James Lecture at Harvard in 1932, John Dewey in his major writing on aesthetics declares that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience commune together, an encounter that reminds
Art as experience is the John Dewey's major writing as this sentence misses to convey that meaning directly and appears as if John declares sth in his writing while originally delivering Art of experience as someone else lecture & this is meaningless.
as john major writing is delivered as James lecture and the intended meaning gets deviated here.

D. Originally delivered as the first William James Lecture at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declared that through such an expressive art, the artists and the audience communed together, an encounter that reminded
writing declares sth and that should be in present tense.
declared, communed and reminded play the spoilsport here.

E. When it was originally delivered as the first William James Lecture at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience, John Dewey’s major writing on aesthetics declared that through an expressive art, the artists and the audience communed together, an encounter that reminds
usage of When changes the meaning here.
past tense error as in D repeats here.

can someone explain where did I go wrong in understanding option C?

tryambaks

Not so; when some eternal fact was said in the past, the fact remains everlasting; For example, Galileo said centuries ago that Earth orbits the Sun. Because earth’s orbiting the Sun is an eternal and universal fact. However, can we say, ‘Galileo says’? That would be wrong since Galileo is not there now to say it. In the given question, while the delivery might have been in the past, the author talks about an everlasting phenomenon. Therefore, that is acceptable.
Look at this: Winning their 30th match in Women’s Doubles at Sydney on Jan 15, Sania and Hingis have taken the No 1 spot in the world ranking.
Here, the winning happened in the past but the main clause is in the present perfect. So the verb tense is decided more by the context than by any thumb rule.
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