Self-study
Sociologist: Widespread acceptance of the idea that individuals are incapable of looking after their own welfare is injurious to a democracy. ██ ███████████ ███ █████ █████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ █████████
Summary
The sociologist concludes that legislators who care about democracy should not propose laws banning behavior that is only harmful to the person doing it. This is because the assumptions that seem to guide legislators often become widely accepted, and the widely accepted idea that people can’t look after themselves hurts democracy.
Notable Assumptions
The sociologist assumes that laws banning behavior that only harms the person doing it will give the appearance that legislators assume people can’t take care of themselves. It is not important that legislators actually assume this, only that they appear to do so.
The sociologist also assumes that legislators who care about democracy should avoid harming it through their actions.
25.
The sociologist's argument requires the ██████████ ████
a
democratically elected legislators ██████████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████████
The argument is only concerned with legislators who do care about democracy and makes no mention of others. Even if only 1% of legislators care about democracy, it could still be important that this 1% don’t propose laws that could hurt it.
b
people tend to ███████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ███ ████████
The premises already tell us that people tend to believe the assumptions that legislators appear to have, so it is not necessary to take this idea any further. In fact, if people don’t share the beliefs of the prominent and powerful generally and only care about what legislators appear to think, that could strengthen the argument by putting more importance on legislators’ actions.
c
legislators often seem ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ █████ ███████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████████
We don’t care if legislators also seem to value democracy, only that the laws they propose seem to assume people can’t look after themselves. We also only need the legislators’ proposed laws to show this assumption, not their actions in general.
d
in most cases, ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ████
(D) is both too strong and irrelevant. We only care if banning these actions gives the appearance that legislators think people can’t take care of themselves. We don’t care how common or uncommon these actions actually are.
e
a legislator proposing █ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ███ ███████
If legislators appear to be guided by the assumption that people can’t look after themselves, then it will likely achieve widespread acceptance. If it achieves widespread acceptance, then democracy will be harmed. This bridges the gap between premises and conclusion, so it is necessary.