Self-study
Support People who have political power tend to see new technologies as a means of extending or protecting their power, whereas Support they generally see new ethical arguments and ideas as a threat to it. ██████████ █████████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ █████████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes two things:
(1) People with technical ingenuity are usually rewarded for that ingenuity. Why? Because the politically powerful tend to view new technologies as useful for reinforcing their own power.
(2) People with ethical inventiveness are only ever punished for that inventiveness. Why? Because the politically powerful tend to view new ethical ideas as a threat to their power.
Notable Assumptions
The author makes two key assumptions:
(1) When people with political power view something as useful for reinforcing their own power (i.e., new technologies), the people responsible (i.e., those with technical ingenuity) somehow benefit.
(2) When people with political power view something as a threat to their power (i.e., new ethical ideas), the people responsible (i.e., those with ethical inventiveness) somehow always suffer.
18.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Those who offer ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ █████████ █████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████████
It’s unclear whether “justifying current political power” is an ethical innovation. If no, then (A) is irrelevant. If yes, then (A) means ethical inventiveness can benefit the inventor, weakening the conclusion that ethical inventiveness brings only pain to the inventor.
b
Politically powerful people ████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █ ███████
This strengthens both claims in the conclusion. The politically powerful believe technically ingenious people are useful to them, so they reward such people. And they believe ethically inventive people are a threat to their power, so they punish such people.
c
Ethical inventiveness and █████████ █████████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████████
We want to help show that ethical inventiveness brings pain, while technical ingenuity brings benefits. The fact that these two traits belong to different sets of people tells us nothing about if, or why, one trait would have bad effects while the other would have good effects.
d
New technologies are █████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ ██████
We want to help show that technical ingenuity brings benefits (and that ethical inventiveness brings pain), given the views of politically powerful people. But (D) says technical ingenuity could pose a threat to the politically powerful. If anything, (D) weakens.
e
Many people who ███████ ███████ █████████████ ███████ █████ █████ ███████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████
The conclusion is about the consequences of both ethical inventiveness and technical ingenuity. At best, (E) strengthens only the half the conclusion. Even then, (E) merely suggests that some people might be punished, but the conclusion says ethical inventiveness guarantees pain.