Some historians of science have argued that science moves forward not

An argument of some historians is presented. The argument compares the reasons for the development of science. The smaller reason is the insights of great thinkers, and the bigger reason is more mundane developments such as improved tools and technologies.

The sentence has an error: “not so… but” is incorrect. To present a comparison, we need to use “not so…as” construction. “Not X but Y” construction is used when we want to discard X and accept Y, not to present a graded comparison. The “so much” after “not” is a clear indicator that a comparison is being made in this sentence.

Let’s consider the following two sentences:
1. Bob is not intelligent but caring.
2. Bob is not so much intelligent as caring.

The first sentence says that Bob is not intelligent and that Bob is caring. On the other hand, the second sentence compares the magnitude of how intelligent and how caring Bob is. This is the difference between “not X but Y” and “not so much X as Y” structures.




A. because of the insights of great thinkers but because of
Incorrect. For the reason mentioned above.

B. because of the insights of great thinkers as the result of
Incorrect. This option lacks parallelism. While “not so” is followed by a clause (which can modify the verb “moves”), “as” is followed by a noun phrase “the result” (which cannot even modify the verb “moves”).

C. because of the insights of great thinkers as because of
Correct.

D. through the insights of great thinkers but through
Incorrect. For the following reasons:
1. The error of the original sentence
2. The phrase “through the insights” cannot idiomatically modify “moves”. We don’t say “science moves through the insights”.

E. through the insights of great thinkers but result from
Incorrect. For the following reasons:
1. The error of the original sentence.
2. The second error of option D
3. The verb phrase “result from” cannot modify the verb “moves”