PT136.S3.P4.Q26

PrepTest 136 - Section 3 - Passage 4 - Question 26

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P1

Most people acknowledge that not all governments have a moral right to govern and that there are sometimes morally legitimate reasons for disobeying the law, as when a particular law prescribes behavior that is clearly immoral. ██ ██ ████ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ████ █ █████ ████ ██ ████ █ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ███

Most people's perspective · Moral duty to obey law because it's law; some rare exceptions
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Philosophical anarchism (PA) · No moral duty to obey law just because it's law
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Commentators' perspective · Reject PA because PA has 2 implications that are absurd
PA allegedly implies (1) all governments are morally equal, and (2) people are morally allowed to do whatever they want (kill people, commit fraud, etc.)
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Rejection of commentator's perspective · PA does not have those 2 implications
P2

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Deny implication 1 · PA can hold that some governments are morally better than others
We can still evaluate morality of government policies/actions based on how much good and harm those policies/actions lead to.
P3

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Deny implication 2 · PA doesn't have to think people can do whatever they want
People still have moral duties not to harm others (a duty that doesn't stem from law). Also, There's a moral duty to help others, which might justify supporting government policies/actions. And, there's a moral duty to follow laws if failing to follow them leads to harm.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Show answer
26.

The author's discussion of people's ████████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ █████████ █████████ ██

a

demonstrate that governmental ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ███████████

The referenced text does not suggest that governmental efforts to help people are superfluous. In fact, the author says here that PAs think that some people might fulfill their moral duty to care for one another by supporting governmental efforts to help those in need.

2%
b

suggest that philosophical ██████████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ████

PAs believe that laws have no inherent moral force, but the author never suggests that they think that laws supporting the common good are rare. Instead, the referenced text demonstrates that PAs maintain that people have some moral obligations toward one another, even thought they don’t have a moral obligation toward the law.

2%
c

imply that the ███████████ █████████████ ██ █████████████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████

The commentators argue that PA is inconsistent with certain widely held moral beliefs, since it implies that people are morally allowed to do whatever they want. The referenced text refutes the commentators’ argument by showing that PAs believe that people do have some moral obligations toward one another.

5%
d

indicate that philosophical ██████████ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███████████

The commentators argue that PA implies that people are morally allowed to do whatever they want. The author disagrees with this, and he uses the referenced text to indicate that PAs actually recognize that people are subject to certain moral obligations— people have a moral obligation to care for one another.

77%
e

illustrate that people ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███████

The previous sentence does say that people are obligated to refrain from actions— like murder, theft, and fraud— that are crimes in most legal systems. But the referenced text does not illustrate this. Instead, it illustrates that PAs believe that people have some moral obligations toward one another.

15%

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