Self-study
Doctor: Conclusion It is wrong for medical researchers to keep their research confidential, even if the companies for which they work would rather that they do so. ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████████████
Summary
Regardless of their employers’ opinions, researchers should share their research. Why? If they don’t, humans might suffer as a result.
Notable Assumptions
The author’s only support for their conclusion is that humans might suffer if research is kept private. The argument doesn’t explicitly tell us that we should do things to prevent potential human suffering, so the author assumes those two ideas are linked. This gives us a strong prediction:
People should not do things that might cause humans to suffer.
15.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████
a
Medical researchers should █████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████
Wrong trigger. We don’t know for sure that keeping the research private will cause human suffering, only that it might.
b
If the most █████████ █████ █████████ ██ ██ ███████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ █████████████
Wrong trigger. The argument makes no mention of what the most important moral principle is, so we can’t use this conditional statement.
c
Medical researchers should ███ ████ ███████████ ████████████ ██ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████████ █████ ███████ ████ ███████████ █████ ██████████
We know from the premises that keeping the research private might cause humans to suffer. (C) tells us that researchers should share their research if that is the case, so this proves our conclusion.
d
Medical researchers should ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ██████████ █████ █████ █████ ████████████
(D) leads to the wrong conclusion. We want to prove that researchers should share their research, not that they should develop new treatments as fast as possible.
e
It is wrong ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ █████████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ███████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███████████
Wrong trigger. We have no clue whether sharing the research will have any effect on the development of new treatments, only that it might cause human suffering.