2024 CSAT — Q32

Locate. Find what the passage asserts versus what it merely raises. The author quotes an epigram linking science to mankind’s history; says its power is to spotlight an overlooked aspect — namely “the relations between science and mankind,” which we wrongly treat as “some abstract third party” to blame for war; insists “Science and mankind cannot be divorced”; observes the era was “dominated by international conflict”; and asks: “Is this the inevitable result of the progress of science or does the fault lie elsewhere?”

Test (negation test + raised-vs-asserted). Statement 1 — horrors are “the inevitable result of the progress of science.” The passage does not assert this; it poses it as a question and tilts toward “the fault lies elsewhere” (i.e. with mankind, not science). An assumption must be a premise the argument leans on — but the argument leans the other way. On my read, invalid. Statement 2 — the overlooked aspect is “science is what man has made it.” The passage’s named overlooked aspect is the inseparable relation between science and mankind — science is not an external third party but bound to humanity, i.e. man-made. ENTITY/MECHANISM/QUALIFIER all hold (it restates the passage’s own point). Valid. That gives (b). The official key (a) flips both judgments.

Eliminate by anatomy. On my blind read: (a) states what the argument concludes, not what it assumes — it treats the author’s open question as an assumed premise. (c) compounds that with (b). (d) over-rejects the fair restatement (Statement 2). The transferable rule: a claim the passage asks about (especially one it leans against) is not an assumption the argument makes — distinguish asserting from merely raising. Because UPSC keyed (a), the contest is squarely whether Statement 1 counts as assumed; routed to the founder.

Statement 1: the passage poses “Is this the inevitable result of the progress of science or does the fault lie elsewhere?” — it RAISES the science-causes-horrors link as an open question and rhetorically leans toward “the fault lies elsewhere,” so the argument does not assume Statement 1 (raised-as-question, not asserted) → invalid on my blind read. Statement 2: the passage’s stated overlooked aspect is “the relations between science and mankind… Science and mankind cannot be divorced” — that science is bound to humanity, i.e. “what man has made it,” a fair inference → valid. Blind (b); official (a). CONTESTED.

Statement 1 — horrors of modern life are the inevitable result of the progress of science. The passage explicitly frames this as a question — “Is this the inevitable result of the progress of science or does the fault lie elsewhere?” — and its rhetoric (science wrongly “blamed,” “cannot be divorced” from mankind, fault possibly “elsewhere”) leans toward not blaming science’s progress. A claim the author raises and leans against is not a premise the argument assumes. Invalid (blind).

Statement 2 — the overlooked aspect is that science is what man has made it. The passage says the easily overlooked truth is “the relations between science and mankind,” that science is not an “abstract third party” but inseparable from humanity. “Science is what man has made it” is a fair restatement of that overlooked aspect. Valid (blind).

Blind answer: (b) 2 only. Official answer: (a) 1 only. Contested — routed to founder.

The pedagogy here is asserted-vs-raised, and it is exactly why the item is contested rather than force-fit. The passage’s closing sentence is a question with a rhetorical tilt away from blaming science. Our standard treats a claim the author raises-and-leans-against as not assumed (→ Statement 1 invalid → b). UPSC’s published key treats Statement 1 as the valid assumption (→ a). We do not bend the defensibility bar to the key; we surface the contest, show both keys, exclude from scoring, and let the founder arbitrate which read the exam intends.