Self-study
Support The view that every person is concerned exclusively with her or his own self-interest implies that government by consent is impossible. █████ ██████ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ █████ █████████████ █████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████
Summarize Argument
The argument concludes that social theorists who believe that people are only concerned with their self-interest must also believe that democracy is impossible. This is based on two claims: that democracy requires government by consent; and that if people are only concerned with their self-interest, government by consent is impossible.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The argument uses a claimed implication of some theorists’ belief about self-interest to come to a conclusion about what those believe about democracy. This assumes that everyone who has the belief about self-interest must agree with what that implies about democracy. However, it’s still possible that not everyone who has the belief about self-interest will agree that democracy is impossible.
16.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████████
a
infers merely from ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███████ █ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████
The argument infers that everyone who believes that people are only concerned with their self-interest will also believe the supposed implication that government by consent is impossible. This inference has no support other than the mere fact of holding the first belief.
b
infers that because █████████ ██ ████ ██ █ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████
The argument doesn’t make any inferences about the properties of individual people based on the properties of the groups they belong to.
c
infers that because █████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █ █████
The argument doesn’t make any inferences about the properties of groups based on the properties of individual people in those groups.
d
attempts to discredit █ ██████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████
The argument isn’t attempting to discredit any theory. It also never tries to discredit supporters of any theory—in fact, there’s no discussion of people’s character at all.
e
fails to consider █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████
The argument doesn’t attempt to claim that any other argument’s conclusion is false.