Passage
Certain schools of thought that arose in the mid- to late 20th century and have since been labeled "poststructuralist" are well known for their propensity to "problematize," "destabilize," or "radicalize" the concepts of previous thinkers. For example, the controversial French poststructuralist and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan sought to reenvision the concept, first introduced by Freud in the early 1900s, of the ego as the autonomous agent of the psyche. Hence in his salient 1949 essay, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the 'I' Function as Revealed in the Psychoanalytic Experience," Lacan variously describes the formation and consequent function of the ego as a schismatic event of misrecognition, an epiphenomenon of narcissism, and a process of dialectical tension. The latter sets up an interchange between identification and alienation, generating confusion between being a subject as opposed to an object, between self and other, between what is "me" and "not me."The drama of the ego's emergence in what Lacan has designated "the Mirror Stage" explains its contrary nature. Somewhere between 6 and 18 months of age, an infant will likely encounter his (or her) own reflection in a mirror. At this phase of development, the child lacks any sense of a unified self but, encouraged by an adult, is able to recognize his reflection in the glass and, at the same time, comes to understand that the specular image looking back at him is, in fact, not himself. In other words, the image provides the infant with the first glimpse of himself as an object and specifically as "other." According to Lacan, the initial fascination and pleasure the child experiences upon self-recognition dissolves into confusion at being unable to distinguish between what is and what is not himself. Therefore, such recognition amounts to a kind of misrecognition, the French term for which, méconnaissance, implies an essential misunderstanding or lack of knowledge.Furthermore, while the reflection in the mirror appears coherent, coordinated, and whole, the child himself continues to perceive his body as uncoordinated and fragmentary, resulting in a profound sense of incongruity and disharmony. By exuding mastery and harmony, the mirror image serves as a gestalt; it holds up an "Ideal-I" or future self that promises completeness and perfection-a condition, Lacan believes, that is ultimately unattainable, though we will likely spend the rest of our lives in pursuit of it. Overall, the infant's reaction to the image or Ideal-I is narcissistic: he feels both attraction to it as a model and aggression toward it as a rival.Alienation, lack, absence, and conflict are thus constitutive of the Lacanian ego. The child's image and, hence, the emerging ego mark an ontological gap that serves as a repository for the projections and desires, whether conscious or unconscious, of parents and others. Consequently, this image is, as Adrian Johnston points out, "always already overwritten" with words that are not the child's own. For Johnston, the ego could more properly be described as "a coagulation of inter- and trans-subjective alien influences." Rather than a "fluid and autonomous subject," it becomes a rigid and "heteronomous" entity. Derived from the desires of others, this ego is, in Lacanian terms, "extimate," or internally exterior. It is an irreducible contradiction, both alien and alienating.This ego paradigm diverges from the more familiar and cohesive Freudian notion of the ego as the sovereign organizer of the personality, the rational mediator between internal drives and social pressures that in the interests of self-preservation will also resort to deceptions and defense mechanisms. From a Lacanian perspective, the ego is intrinsically and irreparably divided; it functions mainly to support the fictional construct we identify-or rather, misrecognize-as the "self."
-The mention of the Neo-Confucian revival in Song dynasty China (Paragraph 1) serves which of the following functions in the passage?

Question

Passage
Certain schools of thought that arose in the mid- to late 20th century and have since been labeled "poststructuralist" are well known for their propensity to "problematize," "destabilize," or "radicalize" the concepts of previous thinkers.  For example, the controversial French poststructuralist and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan sought to reenvision the concept, first introduced by Freud in the early 1900s, of the ego as the autonomous agent of the psyche.  Hence in his salient 1949 essay, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the 'I' Function as Revealed in the Psychoanalytic Experience," Lacan variously describes the formation and consequent function of the ego as a schismatic event of misrecognition, an epiphenomenon of narcissism, and a process of dialectical tension.  The latter sets up an interchange between identification and alienation, generating confusion between being a subject as opposed to an object, between self and other, between what is "me" and "not me."The drama of the ego's emergence in what Lacan has designated "the Mirror Stage" explains its contrary nature.  Somewhere between 6 and 18 months of age, an infant will likely encounter his (or her) own reflection in a mirror.  At this phase of development, the child lacks any sense of a unified self but, encouraged by an adult, is able to recognize his reflection in the glass and, at the same time, comes to understand that the specular image looking back at him is, in fact, not himself.  In other words, the image provides the infant with the first glimpse of himself as an object and specifically as "other."  According to Lacan, the initial fascination and pleasure the child experiences upon self-recognition dissolves into confusion at being unable to distinguish between what is and what is not himself.  Therefore, such recognition amounts to a kind of misrecognition, the French term for which, méconnaissance, implies an essential misunderstanding or lack of knowledge.Furthermore, while the reflection in the mirror appears coherent, coordinated, and whole, the child himself continues to perceive his body as uncoordinated and fragmentary, resulting in a profound sense of incongruity and disharmony.  By exuding mastery and harmony, the mirror image serves as a gestalt; it holds up an "Ideal-I" or future self that promises completeness and perfection-a condition, Lacan believes, that is ultimately unattainable, though we will likely spend the rest of our lives in pursuit of it.  Overall, the infant's reaction to the image or Ideal-I is narcissistic: he feels both attraction to it as a model and aggression toward it as a rival.Alienation, lack, absence, and conflict are thus constitutive of the Lacanian ego.  The child's image and, hence, the emerging ego mark an ontological gap that serves as a repository for the projections and desires, whether conscious or unconscious, of parents and others.  Consequently, this image is, as Adrian Johnston points out, "always already overwritten" with words that are not the child's own.  For Johnston, the ego could more properly be described as "a coagulation of inter- and trans-subjective alien influences."  Rather than a "fluid and autonomous subject," it becomes a rigid and "heteronomous" entity.  Derived from the desires of others, this ego is, in Lacanian terms, "extimate," or internally exterior.  It is an irreducible contradiction, both alien and alienating.This ego paradigm diverges from the more familiar and cohesive Freudian notion of the ego as the sovereign organizer of the personality, the rational mediator between internal drives and social pressures that in the interests of self-preservation will also resort to deceptions and defense mechanisms.  From a Lacanian perspective, the ego is intrinsically and irreparably divided; it functions mainly to support the fictional construct we identify-or rather, misrecognize-as the "self."
-The mention of the Neo-Confucian revival in Song dynasty China (Paragraph 1) serves which of the following functions in the passage?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Paragraph 1 states: "As with rival scientific theories, acceptance of a humanistic framework can be gained by endeavouring to encompass and surpass the insights of competing schools of thought." The author provides an example of this process by mentioning "the Neo-Confucian revival in Song dynasty China…in relation to Daoism," noting a view among some sinologists that the revival entailed "'co-opting Daoist terminology to show that the Confucian worldview was actually more inclusive than the Daoist.'" Accordingly, Neo-Confucianism is portrayed as striving to absorb Daoism and go beyond its doctrines. In Paragraph 5, the author returns to this idea in larger scope, speculating: "Perhaps the world will one day produce a Grand Unified Theory of Humanism which encompasses all major strands of humanistic thinking-or which, at the least, will ever more closely reflect the reality they mutually seek to describe." Thus, just as Neo-Confucianism sought to encompass and surpass the insights of Daoism, the author suggests that over time multiple schools of humanistic thought may be incorporated into a larger, unified framework. Therefore, the mention of the Neo-Confucian revival in Song dynasty China exemplifies an idea developed further in the last paragraph. By contrast, none of the following describes the function served by the mention of the Neo-Confucian revival in Song dynasty China: It helps to clarify the comparisons made in Paragraph 3 (Choice A). Paragraph 2 conveys that "the Supreme Ultimate" of Neo-Confucianism "invites comparison to Plato's Theory of Forms," and Paragraph 3 then discusses some similarities and differences between the two concepts. However, the mention in Paragraph 1 of the Neo-Confucian revival in Song dynasty China does not provide information about either of those concepts. It introduces a difficulty to be resolved in subsequent paragraphs (Choice B). The author states that after "co-opting Daoist terminology" into Neo-Confucianism, "[t]he result, strangely enough, was a cosmology with resemblances to both Platonic rationalism and Augustinian Christianity" (Paragraph 1). However, the author does not portray this fact as a difficulty to be resolved, but rather as an interesting topic to be explored. It anticipates the significant disparities discussed in Paragraph 4 (Choice C). According to Paragraph 4, a similarity can be seen in "Neo-Confucian and Augustinian ideologies regarding the nature of evil," although "the views do exhibit significant disparities." However, while Paragraph 1 states that Neo-Confucianism bears "resemblances to…Augustinian Christianity," it makes no reference to any disparities between these ideologies.

Passage Certain Schools of Thought That Arose in the Mid- to to Late