ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by philosophers,

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solving life's mysteries

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through inscrutable logic puzzles.

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All right, and let's check out the next passage here.

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And we're skimming... We're skimming... We're mumbling.

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We're reading... Words, words,

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words... And skim, skim, skim... And the passage is here.

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Huh. Well, in this passage, "reviled"

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most nearly means... what?

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So it's like viled and then viled again.

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[ mumbles ] Hmm.

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All right, what did Greek philosophers think about slavery?

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Well, let's work through some context clues here to figure it out.

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It's like we're Sherlock Holmes

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if he were studying for the SATs.

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Yeah. He'd probably do pretty good.

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All right. First order of business - let's take a look at the sentence in question.

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Okay. The word "while" implies that

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philosophers had a differing opinion than

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the people who thought slavery was necessary.

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So, in that context, it doesn't make sense that philosophers

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would praise slavery.

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We don't praise things we consider to be wrong.

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And the word "ignored" doesn't work here, either.

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If philosophers disagreed with people who approved

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of slavery, ignoring the issue wouldn't help anything.

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It's the same deal with "questioned."

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Again, there's not really a strong contrast.

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Questioning is not the opposite of supporting,

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even if some politicians might disagree.

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The definition which shows the strongest opposition is condemned.

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While many believed slavery was

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right and necessary, the philosophers condemned it.

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So option A is the best answer.

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Next up, we'll discuss philosophers' opinions of the nature of reality.

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That should be short and easy, right?

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[ chuckles ] Yeah...

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[ scribbling ]

Full Transcript