#16 - Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=14161)

The correct answer choice is (E)

As prephrased in our VIEWSTAMP analysis above, the author regards both the Pin Factory and
the Invisible Hand models with respect. His attitude towards the former’s acceptance into the
mainstream is best expressed in the last paragraph of the passage: “economists […] finally found
ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable” (lines 57-58, italics
mine).

Answer choice (A): The author is not hostile to either economic model.

Answer choice (B): It is the mainstream economists of the past, not the author, who seem uncertain
about how to represent the idea of the Pin Factory model.

Answer choice (C): This answer choice may seem attractive, because “curiosity” has a positive
connotation. However, the author does not find the acceptance of the Pin Factory model to be a
curious idea. Its recognition is both deserved and long overdue, according to the discussion in the
last paragraph of the passage.

Answer choice (D): The rhetoric of the last paragraph is one of conviction, not indifference. The
author is relieved that the Pin Factory model has finally been described with the rigor to make it
respectable.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.The author’s acceptance of the Pin Factory
model in the final paragraph implies that his attitude can be described as one of “receptivity.”

[mpoulson]

Hello,

The authors tone towards the Pin Factory to me seems more uncertain than receptive. Can you pinpoint phrases or sections that make it clear that the author was receptive and not unsure. I thought the author was unsure because he explicitly stated how difficult it was to to depict the pin factory theories with mathematical rigor. Thank you.

- Micah

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi Micah,

The author regards both the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand models with respect. His attitude towards the former’s acceptance into the mainstream is best expressed in the last paragraph of the passage: “economists […] finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable” (lines 57 – 58, italics mine). It is the mainstream economists of the past, not the author, who seem uncertain about how to represent the idea of the Pin Factory model.

Hope this helps!

[willmcchez]

I selected D, as it was closest to my understanding of the author's attitude. I took the author's attitude to be neutral -- I didn't see the "relief" as described in the VIEWSTAMP analysis, and I still don't.

The presence of the word "finally" doesn't indicate, at least to me, any sense of relief in the sentence "By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable."

Saying "Our team finally won the game" or as an extreme example, saying "The Nazis finally won the war" doesn't seem to indicate relief. It just says to me that an outcome occurred after a protracted struggle. I would feel completely different about each of my examples.

Help me out here!

[James Finch]

Hi Will,

Tone questions like this can be difficult because more than one answer choice could conceivably fit, but we're looking for the most accurate choice. To get there, let's run through the choices as given

(A): Immediate Loser, the last paragraph alone shows that the author is open to the Pin Factory idea.

(B): Again, going back to the last paragraph shows that the author believes Pin Factory theories are now "mainstream" and "respectable," not words associated with "uncertainty." Loser.

(C): Here we see the first potentially positive word, implying the author wishes to know more about Pin Factory thought. And there is the problem; the author seems to be an expert on the Pin Factory, not a curious student of it. Loser.

(D): This is where things get tricky. "Indifference" has a negative connotation, in that being indifferent to something means not caring about it or its existence in the slightest. However, many students confuse the idea of indifference with "dispassionate" or "objective", which carry more positive or neutral connotations, respectively, when it really means something closer to a more negative form of "disinterested." In the context of this passage, the author clearly has a great interest in the Pin Factory model, so there's no way he could be described as "indifferent" to it.

(E): "Receptivity" is synonymous with openness to an idea, which aligns more closely with both the author's tone and the structure of the passage, which describes the struggles that Pin Factory models have had to enter into mainstream economic thought, culminating in the breakthrough described in the last paragraph. "Relief" may be a strong word for it, implying the author had some stake in the success of the Pin Factory, but we can clearly infer some form of joy from its recent academic popularity.

Hope this clears things up!