Self-study
Philosopher: Both the consequences and the motives of human actions have bearing on the moral worth of those actions. ████████████ ██ ██ █ █████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ █████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ █ ██████████
Summary
The author concludes that in order to be a moral agent, one must have free will?
Why?
Because in order to be a moral agent, one must desire to conform to a principle.
Notable Assumptions
The premise tells us the following:
Moral agent → desire to conform to principle
The conclusion asserts:
Moral agent → free will
The missing piece to get from the premise to the conclusion:
desire to conform to principle → free will
In other word, the author assumes that in order to desire to conform to a principle, one must have free will.
7.
The philosopher's argument requires the ██████████ ████
a
one cannot be █ █████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █ ███████ ███ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████
The concept of “concern for the consequences of actions” is irrelevant. The author’s assumption is that in order to desire to conform to a principle, one must have free will. Neither of these concepts requires a connection to being concerned about the consequences of actions. (Consequences may relate to the “moral worth,” as mentioned in the context. But that’s not part of the author’s reasoning.)
b
desiring to conform ██ █ █████████ ████████ ████ ████
Necessary, because if this were not true — if desiring to conform to a principle does NOT require free will — then we have no reason to believe that being a moral agent requires free will. Another way to think about this answer is that it is the link the author needs to get from “desire to conform to a principle” to “free will” in the conclusion.
c
nobody who acts ███████ ██████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ █████████████ ██ ████
“Taking the consequences of an action into consideration” is irrelevant to the reasoning. The author’s assumption is that in order to desire to conform to a principle, one must have free will. Neither of these concepts requires a connection to taking into account consequences. (Consequences may relate to the “moral worth,” as mentioned in the context. But that’s not part of the author’s reasoning.)
d
it is impossible ██ ████ ███████ ███████ ████ █████ █ █████ █████
(D) asserts that having desires requires being a moral agent. But that just twists the author’s premise, which is that being a moral agent requires desiring to conform to a principle. (D) isn’t necessary, because even if one could have desires without being a moral agent, that doesn’t relate to whether one needs to have the desire to conform to a principle in order to be a moral agent, or whether one needs free will in order to be a moral agent.
e
it is impossible ██ ███████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ █ █████████
Not necessary, because the performance of morally worthy actions is irrelevant to the reasoning. The author’s assumption is that in order to desire to conform to a principle, one must have free will. Neither of these concepts requires a connection to morally worthy actions. (”Moral worth” may relate to the first sentence, which is context. But that’s not part of the author’s reasoning.)