Self-study
Conclusion If an external force intervenes to give members of a community political self-determination, then that political community will almost surely fail to be truly free, since Support it is during the people's struggle to become free by their own efforts that the political virtues necessary for maintaining freedom have the best chance of arising.
Summary
The author concludes that if an external force gives members of a community political self-determination, then that political community probably won’t be truly free.
Why?
Because there are certain political virtues that are necessary to maintain freedom, and these virtues have the best chance of arising during a people’s struggle to become free by their own efforts.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that if an external force intervenes to give members of a community political self-determination, then people don’t need to struggle to become free by their own efforts.
24.
The reasoning above conforms most ███████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
Political freedom is █ ██████ ████ █ █████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████
(A) arguably undermines the argument, because it asserts that freedom is something a community can attain through an external force. But the conclusion asserts that a people will probably not be truly free if an external force gives them self-determination.
b
Self-determination is not ███ █████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ██████ █████
There’s no basis to claim that one political virtue is the first or not the first; nothing in the reasoning relates to the order in which political virtues develop.
c
A community cannot ██████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████ █████████ ███████ █████████ ████████
This is implied by the premise, which states that there are certain political virtues that are necessary for maintaining freedom. Although (C) is not what we’d probably anticipate, it’s the only answer that matches anything that was said in the argument.
d
Political self-determination is ████████ ██ █ █████████ ██ ██ ██████ █████ █████
The argument never asserts that self-determination is necessary for true freedom. Rather, there are certain political virtues that are necessary for freedom. We don’t know exactly what those virtues are, but there’s no indication that the political self-determination is among them.
e
Real freedom should ███ ██ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████
The argument never asserts that anything “should” or “should not” be the case. The argument makes only descriptive claims about what’s necessary for freedom, or what will happen if an external force intervenes. It doesn’t make any prescriptive claims recommending something or advocating a policy.