Page 180, Vienna Circle Passage

[chloedo]

I'm still a little confused about the analysis for this passage, especially to answer question 1.
The passage states, "[Einstein] had departed from his positivist views to pursue less optimistic answers to the question of political, philosophical, and scientific unity."
His "positivist views," of course, refer to the "decidedly empiricist attitude toward the pursuit of scientific truth." Einstein has moved away from this attitude in order to find a different method to achieve "political philosophical, and scientific unity" or, as restated in answer choice C, "a unified vision of the world."
It seems to me, then, that Einstein's problem is not with the goal of "unity" itself, but rather the positivists' method of achieving it. Answer C, however, states that Einstein finds this goal of unity unrealistic.
Am I wrong in concluding that "unified vision of the world" is the same thing as "political philosophical, and scientific unity?" Or am I misinterpreting what the passage mean by "answers?" If not, then does "less optimistic" not refer to the method of achieving unity instead of the goal itself?
Thank you!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi chloedo,

Thanks for your question. It's a very good one! There is indeed some ambiguity in the last sentence concerning Einstein's attitude towards "political, philosophical, and scientific unity": has he departed from the goal of achieving such unity, or from the method of achieving it? An overt distinction between the two, however, is never made in the passage. The first four sentences describe the aim of the Vienna Circle (to present an unified vision of the world), and mention that their attitude was shared by Einstein. The last sentence suggests that he ultimately "departed from [those] views to pursue less optimistic answers to the question of political, philosophical, and scientific unity." What exactly do we mean by "less optimistic answers"? Another method of achieving scientific unity (other than positivism or empiricism) wouldn't necessarily be less optimistic: it would simply be different. The key here - "less optimistic" - suggests that he may have given up on the idea of a unified world altogether.

This is indeed a very close reading of the passage, and I agree that there is some ambiguity in the last sentence (as is often the case in Reading Comprehension). However, as with any RC question, your decision should be guided by a comparative analysis: even if there is some doubt in your mind as to whether Einstein was more skeptical towards the goal of positivism or towards its methods, there is absolutely no proof than any of the other four answer choices is correct. You should also realize that you may be reading into this a bit too much - after all, these questions are meant to be answered in less than a minute. A quick scan through the other answer choices should reassure you that answer choice (C) is the best one of the bunch, even if you don't love it.

Hope this helps! Let me know.

Thanks!