Self-study
Ethicist: A person who treats others well is more worthy of praise if this treatment is at least partially motivated by feelings of compassion than if it is entirely motivated by cold and dispassionate concern for moral obligation. ████ ██ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████ █ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ █████████
Summary
Who is more worthy of praise? A person who treats others well partially out of feelings of compassion, or a person who treats others well entirely out of of moral obligation? The person motivated by feelings is more worthy of praise.
People can choose to do what is morally right.
People cannot choose to have feelings.
Notable Valid Inferences
People can be more worthy of praise even when they are motivated by something they cannot control than when they are motivated by something that they can control.
21.
If the ethicist's statements are █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ███████
a
Only actions that ███ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████████████ ██ ████ ███████
Could be true. The author believes a person motivated by compassion is more worthy of praise. So he could believe that only actions resulting from feelings should be used in determining praiseworthiness.
b
If a person █████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████
Could be true. The stimulus only tells us about who is more or less deserving of praise. This is a relative relationship. We do not know who does or does not deserve praise.
c
Only what is ███████ ██ █ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████████████ ██ ████ ███████
Must be false. We know a person who’s motivated by feelings, which we can’t control, is more worthy of praise than a person who’s motivated by obligation, which we can control. So the author disagrees with the idea that praiseworthiness depends only on stuff we can choose.
d
Someone who acts ███████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████
Could be true. The stimulus only tells us about who is more or less deserving of praise. This is a relative relationship. We do not know who is or is not worthy of praise.
e
If someone wants ██ ████ ██████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████
Could be true. The stimulus only tells us about who is more or less deserving of praise. This is a relative relationship. We do not know who is or is not worthy of praise.