"apply merely" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It is typically used to emphasize that something is done only to a limited extent or in a simple manner. Example: "I didn't receive any special training, I simply applied the techniques I learned in my college years. I believe that hard work and determination are enough; you don't need to apply merely fancy strategies to be successful."
The unity between the two truths, according to Gelug, does not apply merely to ontological and epistemological issues; it applies equally to soteriology the practical means to the freedom from suffering.
The epistemic principles that he formulates are principles that one may come upon and apply merely by sitting in one's armchair, so to speak, and without calling for any outside assistance.
The anthropological analogy was almost inevitable, for, breaking open the morning papers and reading banner headlines like "england in trouble," our hearts would sink for a while until, after a closer glance, we found that they applied merely to the state of the economy and Mr. Wilson, and not, as we first feared, to the football team and Mr. Ramsey.
Systemic solutions are not a panacea if applied merely as 'downstream' fixes, but are part of, and a means to accelerate, broader culture change towards more sustainable practice.
Applying merely CF not only led to the lower SOM, water content and total N content, but also resulted in negative effects on earthworm activity, while CMC alleviated such negative effects.
Rawls held (2005, 140) that the requirement of public justification applies merely to "constitutional essentials" and that public justification is required when "basic questions of justice" are at stake.
While human data have often applied merely correlational approaches (26 29), hormone treatment of ovariectomized animals has provided convincing evidence of a more causal relationship between sex hormones and serotonergic neurotransmission (30 33).
Although coherentists typically claim that all beliefs contribute to the justification of other beliefs, they hardly mean this to apply to merely derived beliefs such as "either Paris or Rome is the capital of France", that one believes only because one believes Paris to be the capital of France.
Introducing himself to the nation at his confirmation hearings in 2005, Chief Justice Roberts said that "judges are like umpires" in that they do not make the rules but merely apply them.
Do not rub the substance in, but merely apply it to the surface.
And, as this case so very clearly demonstrates, that applies not merely to the judgments of high court judges; it applies also to the judgments of circuit judges".
