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Which of the following sentences is correct? Are commas correct in this scenario?

These religions and their underlying philosophies made China’s social structure less balanced.

or

These religions, and their underlying philosophies, made China’s social structure less balanced.

Thanks in advance for your help; looking forward to understanding the usage better.

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  • It's entirely subjective. Neither is right or wrong. It depends on what the author is trying to convey.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 4:10

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Option 1 without the commas is correct.

This is a question of essential vs. nonessential clauses. In the example, the phrase their underlying philosophies is considered essential to the sentence and therefore should not be separated with commas. If it was removed, the sentence would not have the same meaning. The religions alone did not make the social structures unbalanced. It was a combination of the religions and their philosophies.

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    But if the conjunction were the phrase "as well as", we would use commas.
    – Barmar
    Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 5:49
  • You could easily write the sentence and use parentheses: These religions (and their underlying philosophies) made China’s social structure less balanced. Using parentheses makes it very clear that the information is nonessential. The same is true of the commas. If the author means it to be nonessential, then the commas are perfectly fine—because that's what they indicate. Obviously, the meaning conveyed is different. But you can't say with certainty that the author is conveying the wrong meaning. If commas are used, the phrase is nonessential; if commas are not used, it is essential.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 4:09

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