Self-study
Moralist: Support Humans have a natural disposition to altruism—that is, to behavior that serves the needs of others regardless of one's own needs—but Conclusion that very disposition prevents some acts of altruism from counting as moral. ██████ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ██ ██████████ ████ █ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ██ ██████████ █████ █████████
Summarize Argument
Some acts of altruism are not moral. The moralist provides support through conditional reasoning: behavior is only moral if it intends to follow a moral code. Humans are naturally altruistic, and if we assume that instinctive behavior is not intentional, then at least some altruistic acts cannot be moral behavior.
P1. Moral behavior → intentional moral code/reason
P2. Altruism is instinctual for humans
P3 (assumption, not stated). Instinctual behavior → no intentional moral code/reason
Therefore, not all altruism is moral behavior.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is that some acts of altruism do not count as moral.
9.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████
a
All moral codes ████████ ████████████
This is not stated in the argument. In fact, the author doesn’t provide any information about what moral codes actually say.
b
All moral behavior ██ █████████ ██ █████████
This is not stated in the argument. All we are told about moral behavior is that it must intentionally follow a moral code. If there are other necessary factors, we don’t know them.
c
Behavior must serve ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ██ █████ █████████
This is not stated in the argument. The only requirement we know for moral behavior is that it has to be intentionally moral; we’re never told that helping others is necessary.
d
Not all altruistic ████ ███ █████ █████████
This is a good paraphrase of the conclusion. By taking the general rule that moral behavior must be intentional, and assuming that instinctive behavior (like altruism) isn’t intentional, the author supports the claim that some altruism isn’t moral behavior.
e
Altruism develops through ███ ███ ██ ███████
This is not stated in the argument. Reason may be essential to morality, but nothing is stated about its relationship with altruism.