MCAT Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills Question 72: Answer and Explanation

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Question: 72

7. Which of the following statements made in the passage most directly supports the author's assertion that in nature anthropologists sought a realm free from historical change (paragraph 1)?

  • A. The concept of nature was unstable in 19th century Germany.
  • B. British natural theology combined religion with natural science.
  • C. According to Virchow, while Naturphilosophie teaches that the races of humans and species of animals can change, they are in fact immutable.
  • D. There was a tension between Kantian models of natural science and idealist Naturphilosophie.

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

C This is a Structure question.

Note: All of the claims cited in the choices are in the passage. The question is, which claim is used by the author to most directly support the assertion cited in the question stem.

A: No. The existence of a debate over the concept of nature doesn't itself directly support or explain the author's claim about the anthropologists' own views. The fact that this statement appears in the same paragraph is not enough to show that it acts to logically support the assertion cited in the question.

B: No. The fact that British natural theology, unlike the anthropologists' approach to natural science, combined religion with science doesn't by itself support the author's claim about the actual content or nature of the anthropologists' views on historical change.

C: Yes. Virchow is quoted in paragraph 4, in the context of the author's explanation of the anthropologists' view that "Worse than the idealism of Naturphilosophie was, for anthropologists, its view of nature as becoming rather than being, a view antithetical to the concept of nature that anthropologists wanted to use against historicist humanism." (Note the word "thus" at the beginning of the next sentence, which indicates that the Virchow quote is part of the discussion of the anthropologists' view.) This is a continuation of the discussion that begins in paragraph 1 of the anthropologists' anti-historical approach. Therefore, even though Virchow's statement appears in a different paragraph, it still acts to support and explain the assertion made in paragraph 1.

D: No. While discussion of this tension is part of the author's overall argument, it doesn't itself directly support the author's claim about the specific assertion cited in the question stem. The fact that it appears in the same paragraph as the assertion doesn't guarantee that it acts to support that assertion.

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