17. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with presenting

(A) criticisms of Quine's views on the proper conceptualization of empiricism

No criticism of Quine's views is offered

(B) evidence to support Quine's claims about the problems inherent in classical empiricism

No such evidence is offered

(C) an account of Quine's counterproposal to one of the traditional assumptions of classical empiricism

Yes.

The entire passage is about Quine's counter proposal to one of the traditional assumptions of classical empiricism

(D) an overview of classical empiricism and its contributions to Quine's alternate understanding of empiricism

No.

(E) a history of classical empiricism and Quine's reservations about it

No.


18. According to Quine's conception of empiricism, if a new observation were to contradict some statement already within our system of knowledge, which of the following would be true?

(A) The new observation would be rejected as untrue.

No.

(B) Both the observation and the statement in our system that it contradicted would be discarded.

No.

(C) New observations would be added to our web of statements in order to expand our system of knowledge.

No.

(D) The observation or some part of our web of statements would need to be adjusted to resolve the contradiction.

Yes.

In that case, he argues, any statement or combination of statements (not merely the "offending" generalization, as in classical empiricism) can be altered to achieve the fundamental requirement, a system free of contradictions, even if, in some cases, the alteration consists of labeling the new observation a "hallucination."

(E) An entirely new field of knowledge would be created.

No.


19. As described in the passage, Quine's specific argument against classical empiricism would be most strengthened if he did which of the following?

Quine's specific argument against classical empiricism was that a single contradictory observation refutes unequivocally the generalization (confirmed by some original specific observation.)


(A) Provided evidence that many observations are actually hallucinations.

No.

(B) Explained why new observations often invalidate preexisting generalizations.

No.

(C) Challenged the mechanism by which specific generalizations are derived from collections of particular observations.

No.

(D) Mentioned other critics of classical empiricism and the substance of their approaches.

No.

(E) Gave an example of a specific generalization that has not been invalidated despite a contrary observation.

Yes.

Since historically, a cornerstone of classical empiricism has been the notion that every true generalization must be confirmable by specific observations and any observation counter to the generalization refutes unequivocally the proposed generalization, Quine's argument would be strengthened if he proposed a specific generalization that is not contradicted by a counter-observation.



20. It can be inferred from the passage that Quine considers classical empiricism to be "overly 'narrow'" for which of the following reasons?

Historically, a cornerstone of classical empiricism has been the notion that every true generalization must be confirmable by specific observations. In classical empiricism, the truth of "All balls are red," for example, is assessed by inspecting balls; any observation of a non red ball refutes unequivocally the proposed generalization.

For W.V.O. Quine, however, this constitutes an overly "narrow" conception of empiricism.

I. Classical empiricism requires that our system of generalizations be free of contradictions.
II. Classical empiricism demands that in the case of a contradiction between an individual observation and a generalization, the generalization must be abandoned.
III. Classical empiricism asserts that every observation will either confirm an existing generalization or initiate a new generalization.

(A) II only
(B) I and II only
(C) I and III only
(D) II and III only
(E) I, II, and III

Answer is A.

Choice II is the only correct answer.

The question is asking:

In classical empiricism, a new contradictory observation to a specific generalization would invalidate that generalization, whereas in Quine's empiricism, the new contradictory observation would be integrated into our entire web of knowledge, and this might require alteration of some statements in the web of knowledge or even the observation itself to achieve a system free of contradictions.

If so, which of the following examples would be true.

Clearly the answer is D, which paraphrases the above.

D) The observation or some part of our web of statements would need to be adjusted to resolve the contradiction.

We can observe the overlap:

In classical empiricism, a new contradictory observation to a specific generalization would invalidate that generalization, whereas in Quine's empiricism, the new contradictory observation would be integrated into our entire web of knowledge, and this might require alteration of some statements in the web of knowledge or even the observation itself to achieve a system free of contradictions.

D) The observation or some part of our web of statements would need to be adjusted to resolve the contradiction.