Historian: The central claim of the “end-of-history” theory is that hi

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Historian: The central claim of the “end-of-history” theory is that history has reached its final stage of development. According to its adherents, democratic ideals have triumphed over their rivals, and history is effectively at an ideological end. But, this view fails to consider that it is impossible to stand outside all of history to judge whether history is really at an end.

Which one of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the historian’s statements?

(A) We can never know whether the end-of-history theory is true.

(B) Advocates of the end-of-history theory have too ideological an understanding of history.

(C) If we were at the end of history, we would automatically know whether the end-of-history theory is true.

(D) It is impossible for the end-of-history theory to be true.

(E) Ideological developments are the essential elements of history.

Pritishd · Accepted Answer

Key takeaways from this passage: 
1. According to a theory (i.e. end-of-history), history has come to an end
2. The conclusion of this end is that democratic ideals have won over autocratic ideals
3. But as per the historian, every moment that passes by becomes history and hence it is impossible to stand outside history and judge whether history has really come to an end
4. Hence, if we cannot stand outside history then we also cannot conclude whether the end-of-history is true or false

(A) We can never know whether the end-of-history theory is true 
This option is in line with the points we inferred from the passage

(D) It is impossible for the end-of-history theory to be true 
We were able to conclude from the passage that it is impossible to ensure the validity of the theory as we cannot stand outside history. Hence, we cannot say for sure that the theory is false

The remaining options are relatively easy to eliminate if we ask the question - Does this option helps us conclude the validity of the end-of-history theory?

(B) Advocates of the end-of-history theory have too ideological an understanding of history 
May be or may not be true but we can say for sure that this option does not help conclude the validity of the theory

(C) If we were at the end of history, we would automatically know whether the end-of-history theory is true 
This one might be tempting, but the passage asks us to infer using the fact that it is not possible to stand outside history, or in other words history can never end. So, what would happen if history comes to an end is out-of-scope

(E) Ideological developments are the essential elements of history 
Might be true in real life but this option does not help conclude the validity of the theory

Ans -  A

h31337u · Answer

Historian: The central claim of the “end-of-history” theory is that history has reached its final stage of development. According to its adherents, democratic ideals have triumphed over their rivals, and history is effectively at an ideological end. But, this view fails to consider that it is impossible to stand outside all of history to judge whether history is really at an end.

Which one of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the historian’s statements?

(A) We can never know whether the end-of-history theory is true.

(B) Advocates of the end-of-history theory have too ideological an understanding of history.

(C) If we were at the end of history, we would automatically know whether the end-of-history theory is true.

(D) It is impossible for the end-of-history theory to be true.

(E) Ideological developments are the essential elements of history.
___________________________________________________________________________________
This is an infer question and we need to find an answer choice that MUST BE TRUE.

A) This MUST BE TRUE because the historian says that it is impossible to stand outside all of history to judge whether history is really at an end. 
 B) Can be true(CBT)
C) I was in between A and C. I chose A over C because the author, historian, says "it is impossible to stand outside all of history to judge" and therefore this claim "if we were at the end of history" CAN BE TRUE but NOT MUST BE TRUE. 
D) CBT
E) CBT

Raman109 · Answer

Understanding the argument - 
Historian: The central claim of the “end-of-history” theory is that history has reached its final stage of development. - Background info and claim of someone. 
According to its adherents, democratic ideals have triumphed over their rivals, and history is effectively at an ideological end. - Opinion. 
But, this view fails to consider that it is impossible to stand outside history to judge whether history is at an end. - Historian's view expressed by contrast. He shares that it's impossible to stand outside all of history and tell whether history has reached an ideological end. Meaning we'll not be able to conclude whether the theory is true.

Which one of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the historian’s statements?

(A) We can never know whether the end-of-history theory is true. - ok.

(B) Advocates of the end-of-history theory have too ideological an understanding of history. - The historian doesn't accuse the advocates of having too ideological an understanding of history. He points out that we'll never know whether this theory is true.

(C) If we were at the end of history, we would automatically know whether the end-of-history theory is true. - No such sufficient condition is implied. Wrong.

(D) It is impossible for the end-of-history theory to be true. - It may be true or not. We don't know, but for now, we know that it's impossible to validate the theory.

(E) Ideological developments are the essential elements of history. - Not implied. Distortion.

Sobiya · Answer

What is the level of this question?

Posted from my mobile device

Bunuel · Answer

You can check difficulty of a question in the tags just above the first post. For this question, the difficulty is 655-705, which is medium to hard difficulty.

The difficulty level of a question on the site, after sufficient attempts, is determined automatically based on various parameters collected from users' attempts via timer, such as the percentage of correct answers and the time taken to answer the question. So, this is a 655-705 level question based on our statistics.

ericamqluong · Answer

I think this question was challenging in the way the answer was written. Because answer D includes "theory", it would not be the correct as no statement about the validation of the theory.

Thank you for the explaination!

VerbalBot · Answer

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Historian: The central claim of the “end-of-history” theory is that hi

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Historian: The central claim of the “end-of-history” theory is that hi

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