why is this agreement nessecary for setting the groundwork

Gradesaver has a study guide for this compilation of short stories; you will find an excerpt below, and a link to the guide in sources;

The Moral Dangers of Scientific Advancement

“A Modest Proposal” hints at the dangers of certain types of new knowledge. At the time Swift was writing, many political thinkers had started to apply new theories of science and mathematics to their social ideas. Swift parodies this view by dedicating a few paragraphs of “A Modest Proposal” to calculating the number of babies available for consumption. By doing so, he demonstrates the perils of seeing things only in terms of numbers. Swift suggests that this new kind of social math leaves no room for humanity; people are not numbers. With the calculations present in “A Modest Proposal” Swift expresses his unease with taking reason and scientific advancement too far and forgetting the human side of policy. The bee and the Ancients similarly criticize the spider and the Moderns in "The Battle of the Books."

"A Modest Proposal and Other Satires is a collection of satirical works of political, social, and religious commentary by Jonathan Swift. The most famous of his essays—perhaps the most famous essay of satire in the English language—is “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents of Country; and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public.” This essay was published anonymously in 1729, a year in which Ireland suffered from poverty and famine. “A Modest Proposal” suggests, as a method for dealing with the destitution, that the Irish eat their babies."