CSAT Solved Papers/ 2023/Q72
2023 CSAT — Q72
Passage
“Science by itself is not enough, there must be a force and discipline outside the sciences to coordinate them and point to a goal. It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed. What science needs is philosophy — the analysis of scientific method and the coordination of scientific purposes and results; without this, any science must be superficial. Government suffers, precisely like science, for lack of philosophy. Philosophy bears to science the same relationship which statesmanship bears to politics : movement guided by total knowledge and perspective, as against aimless and individual seeking. Just as the pursuit of knowledge becomes scholasticism when divorced from the actual needs of men and life, so the pursuit of politics becomes a destructive bedlam when divorced from science and philosophy.”
Which one of the following statements best reflects the most rational, logical and practical message conveyed by the passage?
Thinking pathway
Locate. This asks for the author’s view: find the analogy the author drives. The passage argues science needs philosophy (“the analysis of scientific method and the coordination of scientific purposes”), and then draws the key parallel: “Philosophy bears to science the same relationship which statesmanship bears to politics : movement guided by total knowledge and perspective.” Divorced from science and philosophy, politics “becomes a destructive bedlam.” The committed message: politics/statesmanship must be guided by scientific method and philosophical perspective.
Test (commitment test + scope-fit). (a) “modern statesmen need to be well trained in scientific methods and philosophical thinking to… have a better perspective of their roles, responsibilities and goals” restates that parallel applied to statesmen — “movement guided by total knowledge and perspective.” The author is committed to it. Test others: (b) is a contorted near-version (“not desirable… unless well mixed”) that muddies the message; (c) adds “from a very early age” — a schooling-timing detail the passage never states; (d) “all scientists need to be philosophers” over-extends the science-needs-philosophy point into a universal demand on scientists, missing the statesmanship focus the question targets.
Eliminate by anatomy. (b) is half right, half wrong — partially right but awkwardly framed, weaker than the direct (a); (c) brings in something the passage doesn’t — “from a very early age” is an added entity; (d) is too strong and scope-shifted — “all scientists must be philosophers” overshoots and drops the statesmanship message. The transferable rule on author-view questions: pick the option that applies the author’s central analogy at the right target (statesmen guided by science+philosophy), not a contorted or over-extended cousin. Key: (a).
Evidence in the text
“Philosophy bears to science the same relationship which statesmanship bears to politics : movement guided by total knowledge and perspective, as against aimless and individual seeking… the pursuit of politics becomes a destructive bedlam when divorced from science and philosophy.” The message: politics/ statesmanship must be guided by science and philosophy (total knowledge and perspective) — so modern statesmen need training in scientific method and philosophical thinking for better perspective on their roles and goals — exactly (a). (b) is awkwardly partial; (c) adds “from a very early age”; (d) over-extends to “all scientists” → (a).
Worked rationale
The passage’s spine is the analogy philosophy:science :: statesmanship:politics — both must be “guided by total knowledge and perspective,” and politics divorced from science and philosophy becomes “a destructive bedlam.” The practical message: statesmen must be grounded in scientific method and philosophical thinking.
(a) states this directly and at the right scope. (b) says roughly the same thing but in a tangled “not desirable… unless” form that is weaker and less faithful. (c) adds the unstated “from a very early age.” (d) flips to “all scientists must be philosophers,” over-extending and missing the statesmanship target.
Answer: (a).
Why the other options miss
- B half right, half wrong: “not desirable to have Governments managed by empirical statesmen unless well mixed with others…” captures a fragment but in a convoluted, hedged form less faithful than the direct message; the passage calls for statesmen themselves to be so guided.
- C brings in something the passage doesn’t: “a system of education… from a very early age” introduces a schooling-timing prescription the passage never makes.
- D too strong for what the passage says: “all scientists need to be philosophers as well” universalises and shifts the target from statesmanship to scientists, missing the passage’s political message.
Specialist insight
The passage’s load-bearing move is the analogy: statesmanship is to politics what philosophy is to science — guidance by total knowledge and perspective. The correct option (a) applies that analogy to statesmen, which is exactly the author’s point. The traps each distort the application: (b) garbles it, (c) over- specifies the timing, (d) redirects it to all scientists. Reading the analogy and applying it to the right subject is the move. (a).
The author's analogy says statesmanship must be guided by science and philosophy; (a) applies it directly to statesmen, while (b) garbles it and (d) over-extends to "all scientists" — (a).