For some philosophers, writing is an unfortunate necessity, a means of communication that is at best irrelevant to the philosophical thought it expresses and at worst a barrier to that thought. The words in which the philosophical investigator writes up his or her results, according to these philosophers, should be as few and as transparent as possible.
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7) The philosophers described above make which of the following assumptions about philosophy as a scholarly discipline?
A) Philosophy should entail the direct contemplation of thought, with as few mediating influences as possible.
B) Philosophy should be a means of personal expression as well as a vehicle for the communication of ideas.
C) Philosophy is inevitably determined by the written forms in which philosophical ideas are expressed.
D) Philosophy, in general, is more intellectually difficult than are other scholarly disciplines.
We'll be glad to check your answer.
My answer is D for this question.
I don't know why I am struggling with this class so much.
I disagree with your answer. I don't see anything that indicates philosophy is a difficult discipline.
Do you understand all of the words?
You are right, I think it should have been b, as it is a means of personal expression and communication.
No.
The author of this paragraph says that writing gets in the way of real philosophical thinking. He doesn't want to communicate his ideas; he just wants to think.
a, but isn't meditating the same thing as thought? I am so confused.
No. You've confused MEDIATING with MEDITATING. Check a dictionary for the definitions. The root words are MEDIATE and MEDITATE.
http://dictionary.reference.com/
So it would be, "Philosophy is inevitably determined by the written forms in which philosophical ideas are expressed".
Over time, non-specialists are usually able to assimilate radically new scientific ideas, even though these ideas may seem strange when they are initially introduced. Such was the case with Newtonian physics; when Newton proposed his ideas regarding motion and gravitation in the seventeenth century, they were denounced as unreasonable even by other leading physicists. Eventually, however, Newton’s ideas were generally assimilated. Such will also prove to be the case with quantum mechanics, a twentieth-century science that deals with the behavior of matter and light on the subatomic scale. Eventually, the novelty of quantum mechanics will no longer act as a bar to the comprehension of this theory by the non-specialist.
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To answer this question, we need to identify the assumptions that the philosophers described in the passage make about philosophy as a scholarly discipline. The passage states that these philosophers view writing as an unfortunate necessity and believe that the words used in philosophical writing should be as few and transparent as possible.
Option A) Philosophy should entail the direct contemplation of thought, with as few mediating influences as possible. This assumption aligns with the philosophers' view that writing is an unfortunate necessity and that the words used in philosophical writing should be minimal and transparent. Therefore, option A is a plausible assumption that these philosophers might make about philosophy as a scholarly discipline.
Option B) Philosophy should be a means of personal expression as well as a vehicle for the communication of ideas. The passage does not provide any indication that these philosophers value personal expression in philosophy or that they see philosophy as a means of personal expression. Therefore, option B is not a likely assumption that these philosophers make.
Option C) Philosophy is inevitably determined by the written forms in which philosophical ideas are expressed. The passage does not suggest that these philosophers believe philosophy is determined by the written forms of expression. Instead, they view writing as a barrier or irrelevant to the philosophical thought being expressed. Therefore, option C is not a likely assumption that these philosophers make.
Option D) Philosophy, in general, is more intellectually difficult than other scholarly disciplines. The passage does not provide any indication that these philosophers make any specific claims about the intellectual difficulty of philosophy in comparison to other scholarly disciplines. Therefore, option D is not a likely assumption that these philosophers make.
Based on the information provided in the passage, the assumption that aligns with the view of the philosophers described is option A) Philosophy should entail the direct contemplation of thought, with as few mediating influences as possible.