Self-paced
Passage A.
P1
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Intro / Context / Premise ·
Legal system rests on questionable assumption that free will exists
Free will may not exist.
P2
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Premise ·
Free will does not exist at all
There is no unconnected spot in the brain that's independent of all other parts. There's nowhere for free will to hide, so to speak.
P3
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Premise ·
Even if a little free will exists
It's so small that it should not be considered significant.
P4
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Conclusion ·
Blameworthiness should be removed from legal system
Because it falsely assumes free will exists. Legal system should be forward looking, focusing on future behavior of criminals.
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P5
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Question ·
Can the law discard the concept of free will?
P6
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Premise ·
Would be difficult at the level of the individual
Research suggests that individuals cling onto moral judgments and seek to assign blame even if they are primed to believe in determinism (i.e., no free will).
P7
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Premise ·
Would be difficult at the level of society
We've tried in the past to focus only on rehabilitation but there was public backlash and retribution has returned.
P8
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Conclusion ·
Blameworthiness serves a useful function
Even if it's "false," it's useful. Legal system should focus on why people feel the need to blame.
Passage Style
19.
Which one of the following ████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ██
a
Parents should refrain ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ █████ █████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████████
It’s not clear what parents’ actions toward their children has to do with the role of blame in the legal system.
b
Prosecutors should be ███████ ██ ███████ ██████ █████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ █ ██████
This doesn’t conform to Passage A, because (B) involves allowing the exclusion of people who don’t want to blame.
c
The admissibility of ██████ █████████ █████████ █ █████████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████████
We have no reason to think this doesn’t conform to Passage B. Passage B isn’t necessarily against strict guidelines regarding testimony about someone’s state of mind.
d
The findings of █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████████ █████████████
Passage A doesn’t suggest anything about whether brain science should be viewed with suspicion. So we don’t know that (D) conforms to Passage A.
e
Courts should be ███████ ██ ████████ █ █████████ ████████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████████
This conforms with Passage A, because Passage A doesn’t think blame (culpability) should be part of the legal system. But it doesn’t conform to Passage B, because Passage B thinks blame should still be part of the legal system.