How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?

Only the right answer will support disagreeing with the conclusion.

Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:

the solution is to define medieval epistemology simply as “the epistemological beliefs of the medieval epistemologists.”

Speaker: [BACKGROUND]. Clearly, [CONCLUSION]. [SUPPORT]. [SUPPORT].

Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:

(A) …the same epistemological beliefs as did ancient epistemologists.

The passage doesn’t mention “ancient” epistemologists, so you’d have to add in a lot of your own reasoning to connect this comparison to disagreeing with the author’s conclusion about the definition.

(B) …depended upon their beliefs about nonepistemological matters.

The passage never mentions “nonepistemological matters”, and it should be clear that has no impact on the definition of “medieval epistemology”.

(C) The writings of most medieval epistemologists…

…are never mentioned. For this to be relevant, it’s gotta be common sense how this info affects the definition in the author’s conclusion.

(D) …had epistemological beliefs that contradicted…

This may sound good, but be careful. Why can’t the definition of “medieval epistemology” include contradicting beliefs? You can’t make that assumption, and the author never explains this at all. So that doesn’t “weaken” the argument.

(E) There is much debate as to which medieval thinkers, if any, were epistemologists.

The author’s support says we can “just ask whether any medieval epistemologists believed it.” But this answer says you can’t really do that, since we don’t agree about who those people are. See how that maps directly to the argument, without bringing in anything new? And if it’s true, you’d definitely disagree about the author’s definition.

(E) is the correct answer.