PT50.S2.Q12 - one can never tell whether

TheAnxious0L

Hi guys,

Can someone break this question down for me? It’s a PSA question, and I’ve watched every explanation I could on it and it’s still not clicking.

Would appreciate any insight on it.
Thanks!

https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-50-section-2-question-12/

LSATcantwin

I think what would help most is to understand what the right answer says, and then work backward from it.

Answer Choice;

• A.) The intention of an action is indispensable for an evaluation of its morality.

What does that mean? Well, it just says that we have to know the intention of an action if we are to decide if it is moral. Without knowing intention, it is impossible to know if the action is moral.

So how does this help justify our argument?

Lets add it into the argument to see;

P1.) One can never tell whether another person is acting from an ulterior motive;

AC A) The intention of an action is indispensable for an evaluation of its morality;

C; therefore it is impossible to tell whether someone's action is moral...

What answer choice A does is it fills in this little gap of what it takes to know if an action is moral.

Before answer choice A we might be able to tell if an act is moral because it says so in a religious text for instance. The motive doesn't matter as long as the action does what the book says.

With answer choice A we now know that we HAVE TO know the intention (motive) before we know if an action is moral, and since it is impossible to tell whether another person is acting from an ulterior motive, we can never know if it is moral.

Does this help at all?

TheAnxious0L

Yes! So much, thank you for breaking that down.