Self-study
Support At some point in any discussion of societal justice, the only possible doctrinal defense seems to be "That is the way we do things here." Support Different communities that each recognize the dignity and equality of all citizens will, for example, nevertheless settle on somewhat different provisions for the elderly. ██ ██ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ ██████ █ ██████████ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes a government’s social policies can’t be determined using only general principles of justice. Why not? Because defending any policy—such as provisions for the elderly—on the grounds of social justice eventually requires invoking arbitrary choices or circumstances specific to that policy.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes there’s no other policy, besides those mentioned, that can be determined by general principle without relying on arbitrary choices or specific circumstances. In addition, he assumes there’s no general principle of justice that’s capable of fully determining a policy about provisions for the elderly.
9.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████████
a
Although two socialist ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ███████████ ███ ███ █ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████
This concerns electoral principles and policies, not principles of justice and social policies. Since the author’s principle refers only to social policies, this example is irrelevant.
b
Two democratic industrial ███████ ████ ███████████ ██ ████████████ ████████ ███████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █████████
This example concerns land distribution, not social policies. There’s no indication the states’ social policies are the reason they devote different amounts of land to forestry.
c
Although each adhered ██ ███ ███ ███████████ █ █████████ ███ █ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███████████
This gets the desired structure backward. It refers to states with different principles but similar outcomes, whereas the author argues states with similar principles will have different policy details.
d
Two states founded ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████████ ████ ███ ██ ██ ███ ██ █████ ██ ██ ████████ ███ █████████████████████ ███ █████
This is an example of the point argued by the author. It shows two states with similar principles of justice can have social policies with different details.
e
Two societies based ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ████████████ █████████
This gets the desired structure backward. It refers to states with different principles of justice but similar policies, whereas the author argues states with similar principles of justice will have differences in their policies.