Question:
Deborah Mayo is a philosopher of science who has attempted to capture the implications of the new experimentalism in a philosophically rigorous way. Mayo focuses on the detailed way in which claims are validated by experiment, and is concerned with identifying just what claims are borne out and how. A key idea underlying her treatment is that a claim can only be said to be supported by experiment if the various ways in which the claim could be at fault have been investigated and eliminated. A claim can only be said to be borne out by experiment, and a severe test of a claim, as usefully construed by Mayo, must be such that the claim would be unlikely to pass it if it were false.
Her idea can be explained by some simple examples. Suppose Snell's law of refraction of light is tested by some very rough experiments in which very large margins of error are attributed to the measurements of angles of incidence and refraction, and suppose that the results are shown to be compatible with the law within those margins of error. Has the law been supported by experiments that have severely tested it? From Mayo's perspective the answer is 'no' because, owing to the roughness of the measurements, the law of refraction would be quite likely to pass this test even if it were false and some other law differing not too much from Snell's law true. An exercise I carried out in my school-teaching days serves to drive this point home. My students had conducted some not very careful experiments to test Snell's law. I then presented them with some alternative laws of refraction that had been suggested in antiquity and mediaeval times, prior to the discovery of Snell's law, and invited the students to test them with the measurements they had used to test Snell's law; because of the wide margins of error they had attributed to their measurements, all of these alternative laws pass the test. This clearly brings out the point that the experiments in question did not constitute a severe test of Snell's law. The law would have passed the test even if it were false and one of the historical alternatives true.
The author's use of Snell's law of refraction to illustrate Mayo's perspective can best be said to be
Deborah Mayo is a philosopher of science who has attempted to capture the implications of the new experimentalism in a philosophically rigorous way. Mayo focuses on the detailed way in which claims are validated by experiment, and is concerned with identifying just what claims are borne out and how. A key idea underlying her treatment is that a claim can only be said to be supported by experiment if the various ways in which the claim could be at fault have been investigated and eliminated. A claim can only be said to be borne out by experiment, and a severe test of a claim, as usefully construed by Mayo, must be such that the claim would be unlikely to pass it if it were false.
Her idea can be explained by some simple examples. Suppose Snell's law of refraction of light is tested by some very rough experiments in which very large margins of error are attributed to the measurements of angles of incidence and refraction, and suppose that the results are shown to be compatible with the law within those margins of error. Has the law been supported by experiments that have severely tested it? From Mayo's perspective the answer is 'no' because, owing to the roughness of the measurements, the law of refraction would be quite likely to pass this test even if it were false and some other law differing not too much from Snell's law true. An exercise I carried out in my school-teaching days serves to drive this point home. My students had conducted some not very careful experiments to test Snell's law. I then presented them with some alternative laws of refraction that had been suggested in antiquity and mediaeval times, prior to the discovery of Snell's law, and invited the students to test them with the measurements they had used to test Snell's law; because of the wide margins of error they had attributed to their measurements, all of these alternative laws pass the test. This clearly brings out the point that the experiments in question did not constitute a severe test of Snell's law. The law would have passed the test even if it were false and one of the historical alternatives true.
The author's use of Snell's law of refraction to illustrate Mayo's perspective can best be said to be
Her idea can be explained by some simple examples. Suppose Snell's law of refraction of light is tested by some very rough experiments in which very large margins of error are attributed to the measurements of angles of incidence and refraction, and suppose that the results are shown to be compatible with the law within those margins of error. Has the law been supported by experiments that have severely tested it? From Mayo's perspective the answer is 'no' because, owing to the roughness of the measurements, the law of refraction would be quite likely to pass this test even if it were false and some other law differing not too much from Snell's law true. An exercise I carried out in my school-teaching days serves to drive this point home. My students had conducted some not very careful experiments to test Snell's law. I then presented them with some alternative laws of refraction that had been suggested in antiquity and mediaeval times, prior to the discovery of Snell's law, and invited the students to test them with the measurements they had used to test Snell's law; because of the wide margins of error they had attributed to their measurements, all of these alternative laws pass the test. This clearly brings out the point that the experiments in question did not constitute a severe test of Snell's law. The law would have passed the test even if it were false and one of the historical alternatives true.
The author's use of Snell's law of refraction to illustrate Mayo's perspective can best be said to be
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Notice the phrase 'serves to drive this point home' right after the author introduces the example; that tells you its role.
Updated On: Jul 10, 2026
- Contrived.
- Premeditated.
- Superfluous.
- Illustrative.
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The Correct Option is D
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Identify what the Snell's law example is doing in the passage.
After stating Mayo's abstract idea, that a claim is validated only by a severe test, the author immediately gives a concrete case: a rough experiment on Snell's law, and a classroom exercise where students' loose measurements let ancient, wrong laws of refraction pass the same test. The author uses this real teaching episode purely to make the abstract idea easy to follow.
Step 2: Match this purpose to the right word.
When a writer uses a concrete story or example specifically to make an abstract idea clear, that use is called illustrative, it illustrates, or shows in a picture-like way, a point already being made. The passage explicitly says the exercise 'serves to drive this point home', which directly states that its purpose is to clarify.
Step 3: Rule out the other options.
Option 1, contrived, would mean the example was artificially forced or unnatural, but the author describes it as something that actually happened in his own school-teaching days, so it is a genuine anecdote, not a forced one.
Option 2, premeditated, would mean the example was planned in advance with some hidden intent; the passage gives no hint of any such planning or ulterior motive, it simply recounts a teaching exercise.
Option 3, superfluous, would mean the example was unnecessary or added extra detail with no real purpose; but the example is exactly what makes Mayo's abstract idea concrete and understandable, so it serves a real, needed purpose.
The official fifth option, inadequate, would mean the example failed to make its point; but the passage shows the example fully succeeding, since the students clearly grasped why a rough test cannot validate a claim, so it is not inadequate.
Step 4: Final Answer.
Because the Snell's law example is used purely to make Mayo's abstract idea concrete and understandable, and does so successfully, the best description of its use is illustrative. \[ \boxed{\text{Option 4}} \]
After stating Mayo's abstract idea, that a claim is validated only by a severe test, the author immediately gives a concrete case: a rough experiment on Snell's law, and a classroom exercise where students' loose measurements let ancient, wrong laws of refraction pass the same test. The author uses this real teaching episode purely to make the abstract idea easy to follow.
Step 2: Match this purpose to the right word.
When a writer uses a concrete story or example specifically to make an abstract idea clear, that use is called illustrative, it illustrates, or shows in a picture-like way, a point already being made. The passage explicitly says the exercise 'serves to drive this point home', which directly states that its purpose is to clarify.
Step 3: Rule out the other options.
Option 1, contrived, would mean the example was artificially forced or unnatural, but the author describes it as something that actually happened in his own school-teaching days, so it is a genuine anecdote, not a forced one.
Option 2, premeditated, would mean the example was planned in advance with some hidden intent; the passage gives no hint of any such planning or ulterior motive, it simply recounts a teaching exercise.
Option 3, superfluous, would mean the example was unnecessary or added extra detail with no real purpose; but the example is exactly what makes Mayo's abstract idea concrete and understandable, so it serves a real, needed purpose.
The official fifth option, inadequate, would mean the example failed to make its point; but the passage shows the example fully succeeding, since the students clearly grasped why a rough test cannot validate a claim, so it is not inadequate.
Step 4: Final Answer.
Because the Snell's law example is used purely to make Mayo's abstract idea concrete and understandable, and does so successfully, the best description of its use is illustrative. \[ \boxed{\text{Option 4}} \]
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