Self-study
It is common to respond to a person who is exhorting us to change our behavior by drawing attention to that person's own behavior. ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████
Method of Reasoning
The stimulus operates by highlighting that it is an ad hominem flaw to respond to a someone’s argument by drawing attention to that person’s behavior, because one’s argument should not be evaluated by their actions.
26.
Which one of the following █████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
a
Other countries argue ████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ █████ █████
Mismatched premises. The stimulus operates by identifying an ad hominem fallacy in someone else’s argument; (A) operates by dismissing someone else’s argument by citing their behavior. In other words, (A) is committing the flaw that the stimulus says is irrational.
b
My neighbor urges ██ ██ █████████ ███ █ ███ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███
Mismatched premises. (B) commits the flaw that the stimulus says is irrational. The stimulus says that one’s actions are irrelevant to whether their advice should be heeded; (B) dismisses someone’s advice because of their actions.
c
When one country ███████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████████ █████ ██████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██████████
Mismatched premises and conclusion. While the stimulus argues that someone else’s argument is irrational because it commits an ad hominem flaw, (C) operates by advising someone (the accused country) to commit an ad hominem flaw.
d
One should not ███████ ███ █████████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████
The argument operates by highlighting that it is an ad hominem flaw to dismiss a philosopher’s argument by pointing to the philosopher’s behavior, because one’s argument should not be evaluated by their actions.
e
We should not ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ █ ██████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ██████████
Mismatched premises and conclusion. The stimulus operates by claiming that someone’s actions are irrelevant to their argument; (E) operates by saying that everybody else’s actions make it irrational to condemn a specific person’s actions.