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For Aquinas, Aristotle posited a relation

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For Aquinas, Aristotle posited a relation

by aditya8062 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:39 am
For Aquinas, Aristotle posited a relation of the physical to the metaphysical that, Aquinas felt, had a deep resonance with Christian theology, and he made Aristotle's philosophy the basis of his Summa Theologica.

A)For Aquinas, Aristotle posited a relation of the physical to the metaphysical that, Aquinas felt, had a deep resonance with Christian theology

B)To Aquinas, the relation of the physical to the metaphysical in Aristotle had a deep resonance with Christian theology

C)To Aquinas, the relation of the physical to the metaphysical in Aristotle, deeply resonating with Christian theology

D) Aquinas felt that the relation of the physical to the metaphysical in Aristotle deeply resonated with Christian theology

E)Aquinas felt that the relation of the physical to the metaphysical in Aristotle had a deep resonance with Christian theology

my doubt: the OA of this question is D. but i feel that the meaning of D is awkward. As per my information, Aristotle is a name of a person . So isn't the expression "in Aristotle" wrong? i marked A for this question assuming that Aristotle (as a person) posited some kind of theory for "Aquinas" (another person). i might be wrong in contending that Aristotle might have posited this theory for "Aquinas" in particular but then it can be a valid interpretation, at least better than D
my larger question is how do we deal with such questions that are based on "history knowledge"
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:38 am
It is common in English to refer to an author's body of work simply by the author's name. For example, "in Shakespeare, the theme of identity is important." The phrase "in Shakespeare" is understood to mean "in Shakespeare's body of work as a whole." This is certainly a colloquialism, and I've never seen it on the real GMAT, but it's commonly accepted enough in modern English that it might appear on the GMAT.

What is the source of this question?
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by aditya8062 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:42 am
thanks ceilidh
"in Shakespeare's body of work as a whole." This is certainly a colloquialism, and I've never seen it on the real GMAT
by this do u mean that following sentence is wrong: in Shakespeare's body of work as a whole
What is the source of this question?
the source is Mangoosh
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by aditya8062 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:50 am
hi ceilidh
i will appreciate if u can comment as why we cannot take the meaning of A correct.the thing that u have told in your previous post is totally new to me. why GMAT should be testing something which is so uncommon?
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:52 am
by this do u mean that following sentence is wrong: in Shakespeare's body of work as a whole
No, not at all. That would be perfectly grammatically correct. I meant that "in Shakespeare" was a colloquialism. But it is such a common expression that you're much more likely to see "in Shakespeare" than "in Shakespeare's body of work" in a piece of literary criticism.

The GMAT does test idioms, so there's always a possibility that you'd see something like this, but I tend to doubt it. Technically, this expression should be grammatically incorrect, since we're not literally talking about what happens inside of a person when we say "in Aristotle." The GMAT usually avoids the sticky territory of idioms that are commonly-used-but-probably-technically-incorrect. So you probably don't need to worry about it, but no expert can give you a 100% guarantee on things like that.

Sorry I can't be more helpful than that!
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:59 am
aditya8062 wrote:hi ceilidh
i will appreciate if u can comment as why we cannot take the meaning of A correct.the thing that u have told in your previous post is totally new to me. why GMAT should be testing something which is so uncommon?
There are two problems with A. First, by saying "for Aquinas, Aristotle posited..." it implies that Aristotle did this specifically for Aquinas, and for no one else. The correct meaning is that Aquinas perceived Aristotle this way, not that Aristotle did this on purpose for Aquinas's sake. A better fit for the meaning would be "according to Aquinas" or "in Aquinas's view."

The other problem is with pronouns. In A, Aristotle is the subject of the independent clause, and thus holds more claim to the pronoun "he." From a meaning perspective, we want Aquinas to be the antecedent of the pronoun, so we want to make Aquinas the subject.

As to your question about why the GMAT would test something so uncommon... I doubt that they actually would.
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by GMATGuruNY » Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:25 am
aditya8062 wrote:i marked A for this question assuming that Aristotle (as a person) posited some kind of theory for "Aquinas" (another person).
A: For Aquinas, Aristotle posited a relation of the physical to the metaphysical that, Aquinas felt, had a deep resonance with Christian theology.
Generally, an introductory prepositional modifier serves as an ADVERB modifying the verb in the following clause.
Here, for Aquinas serves to modify posited.
Conveyed meaning:
Aristotle posited FOR AQUINAS a relation that AQUINAS FELT.
This meaning is contradictory.
How could Aristotle suggest to Aquinas a relation that Aquinas already felt?
Eliminate A.
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by feedrom » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:17 am
Hi Mitch,

Could you explain what is wrong with E?

Thank you,
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