PTA.S4.Q25

PrepTest A - Section 4 - Question 25

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Louis: Conclusion People’s intentions cannot be, on the whole, more bad than good. ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ████████

What Is Louis Arguing?

Louis concludes that people's intentions cannot be more bad than good. In other words, people's intentions are, on average, equally good and bad or actually more good.

Why does he think this? Because if we believed people's intentions were mostly bad, we'd stop trusting each other. And since society can't survive without people trusting each other, that belief would basically threaten society's survival.

In simpler terms, Louis is saying: "Believing this would cause something terrible. Thus, it can't be true." But he's not giving us any actual evidence that people's intentions are good. He's not pointing to examples of people being kind or generous. He's not citing any research. His only reason for rejecting the idea that intentions are mostly bad is that believing it would lead to bad things happening. He's making the argument entirely about what would happen if we held this belief, rather than about whether the belief is actually correct.

Anticipation

Here's the key question: does the fact that a belief would lead to bad outcomes mean the belief is false? No! Think about it this way. Imagine a doctor discovers that a patient has a serious illness. If the patient finds out, the stress might make the illness worse. Does that mean the patient doesn't actually have the illness? Of course not. The illness is real regardless of whether finding out about it would make things worse.

Louis makes the same kind of mistake. Even if believing "intentions are mostly bad" really would destroy trust and threaten society, that doesn't prove intentions aren't mostly bad. Something can be true even when believing it would cause problems. We're looking for an answer that calls out this gap between "believing X would be bad for us" and "X is false."

User Avatar Analysis by Kevin_Lin
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25.

The argument is most vulnerable ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████

a

It fails to ████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████ █ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████████ █████████████

b

It mistakenly assumes ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████

c

It challenges the █████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ██ █████

d

It assumes without ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██████

e

It provides no ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █ █████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ████████████

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