Political scientist: The dissemination of political theories is in pri

If you see assumption provides new information that needs to be true for the conclusion to hold true.
Lets's take a situation in which people within academic setting formulate political theories not to change society but for some other reason. It does not change the role played by people outside academic setting and hence the conclusion would still hold because still the people outside academic setting will have that special role of making the theories accessible.

Hi Rudy

Let us break the stimulus down into the conclusion and premises on which it is based.

Conclusion: With respect to political theory, there is a special role for those outside the university context to render it into accessible, clear language.

Premises:

i) The dissemination of political theories is able to cause change in existing social structures.
ii) All political theories are formulated in a university setting, leading to convoluted language that is not easily understood by those outside academia.
iii) These people outside academia can be important agents of change.

If you notice, there is a subtle language shift within the argument. The conclusion talks about "render...into accessible, clear language" while the facts only talk about where the theories are "formulated". The argument then makes a case for a role of people outside the place where the theories are formulated to put the theory in clear language. Clearly, this would be true only if those who formulate it do not or cannot do this same activity - else, why are others needed to do this? This is exactly what option (E) says.

Option (B) states: Persons within academic settings who formulate political theories attempt to change existing social structures.

Let us say this is not true ie; persons within academic settings who formulate political theories do not attempt to change existing social structures.

This does not change the conclusion in any way. Irrespective of intent to change social structures or lack thereof, the theories are still in dense language which need to be put into simple language. Hence this cannot be an underlying assumption of the conclusion.

Hope this helps.

Can someone please explain why D is incorrect

Bumping for further discussion. Best explanation posted within 24 hours of this post will receive kudos!

Didn't even understand what the paragraph means on the first place

1) Political theories are written in universities.
2) When the society understands this theory, there is a social change
3) Why is dissemination required? because language is convoluted
4) Who disseminates? Not university but people outside the university. There is a "special role" for these people
5) Why is there a "special role"? Because university guys don't do / can't do this

Political scientist: The dissemination of political theories is in principle able to cause change in existing social structures. However, all political theories are formulated in the educationally privileged setting of the university, leading to convoluted language that is alienating to many individuals outside academia who would be important agents of change. It follows that, with respect to political theory, there is a special role for those outside the university context to render it into accessible, clear language.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) Persons outside academic settings are the most important agents of change to the social structure.
(B) Persons within academic settings who formulate political theories attempt to change existing social structures.
(C) Persons outside academic settings are better left out of the initial formulation of political theories.
(D) Persons outside academic settings stand to gain more from the dissemination of political theories than persons inside.
(E) Persons within academic settings are less willing or less able than persons outside to write in a straightforward way.

The paragraph states : spread of political theories is responsible for change in social structure.
and since all political theories are created in universities the language used i difficult for layman to understand. (this is the conclusion)so to make people understand those theories and bring the desired change in social structure there exist people outside the university who understand the theory and put it into simpler words for common people to understand.


lets eliminate answer choices now.
A. Spread of political theory is responsible for change not the agents alone. (wrong)
B. People in university formulate theories , in this para we aren't given any info about their motives . Also the dessimination (spread) is responsible for change .(wrong)
C. The conclusion has nothing to do with the formulation phase. Regardless of including or not including an agent , the language will be difficult to understand .(wrong)
D. Irrelevant . As the gain / loss from theory is equal for all .
E. Correct answer by process of elimination.
another way to prove this would be by trying to negate this. (E) Persons within academic settings are not less willing or less able than persons outside to write in a straightforward way. this would mean that the language will be easy to understand and that an agent outside the university wont be needed .As a result would hurt the conclusion. Therefore this is the correct answer.

P: Spread --> Changes in SS (social structure)
P: Privileged setting --> all PT forms in difficult language for regular people to understand (Bit ironic here XD, as we fall on the regular people part)
C: Outside people's important/special role --> Spreading it and making it more accessible.

Pre-thinking - If Academics can spread the word in easy language, then there wont be the need of Outsiders.

(A) Persons outside academic settings are the most important agents of change to the social structure. We know they are important but we don't know whether they are more important or not. Maybe they are equally or less important than those who create such theories.
(B) Persons within academic settings who formulate political theories attempt to change existing social structures. We don't know whether they create such theories with an intent to change the SS.
(C) Persons outside academic settings are better left out of the initial formulation of political theories. Again cannot be said with surity. Maybe the including them can help in creating better theories. Out.
(D) Persons outside academic settings stand to gain more from the dissemination of political theories than persons inside. cannot be said.
(E) Persons within academic settings are less willing or less able than persons outside to write in a straightforward way. Bingo. If they are less able or willing, then we have a reason which supports the conclusion. Also close to our pre-thinking.

Could you please explain in detail why not B? In what I have learned so far, Assumptions state NEW information, so your reasoning is not enough to eliminate answer B.

Why not B? I don't really understand.

So the passage mentions in the first line that the dissemination of political theories attempts to change social structure. It does not mention anything about the intentions of the people within academic settings

As I learned, assumptions state NEW information, so your reasoning is not enough to eliminate answer B. Am I right? If not, please correct.

Political scientist: The dissemination of political theories is in principle able to cause change in existing social structures. However, all political theories are formulated in the educationally privileged setting of the university, leading to convoluted language that is alienating to many individuals outside academia who would be important agents of change. It follows that, with respect to political theory, there is a special role for those outside the university context to render it into accessible, clear language.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) Persons outside academic settings are the most important agents of change to the social structure.
(B) Persons within academic settings who formulate political theories attempt to change existing social structures.
(C) Persons outside academic settings are better left out of the initial formulation of political theories.
(D) Persons outside academic settings stand to gain more from the dissemination of political theories than persons inside.
(E) Persons within academic settings are less willing or less able than persons outside to write in a straightforward way.

I eliminated B earlier only to chose it back as my answer. Though the logic for B was right initially that whether they attempt to change or not it doesn't matter as change happens eventually even though the language is convoluted for most of the people outside university settings. It was more so because of the word "willing" in E that made me eliminate it, though half-heartedly. Willingness felt just like "gain" or "leaving" that appear in other choices.

Choices A, C and D focus on non-core issues of the passage - they somewhat make comparisons that are deviations and nothing else.

Answer E.

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