Self-study
Editorial: It has been suggested that private, for-profit companies should be hired to supply clean drinking water to areas of the world where it is unavailable now. ███ █████ ██████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ █████ ████ █████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ █ ███████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ ██ ███████ ███████
Summary
The editorial concludes that clean drinking water shouldn’t be supplied by private companies. Why? Because clean water is essential for health, and the purpose of private companies is to make profit, not to promote health.
Notable Assumptions
The editorial concludes that water shouldn’t be supplied by private companies, but the premises never explain what kind of organization should supply water.
The editorial assumes that if something is essential for human health, then it shouldn’t be provided by a company whose purpose is not to promote health. To help justify this reasoning, we need a principle that satisfies this assumption and thus supports the conclusion that private companies shouldn’t supply drinking water.
26.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████
a
A private company ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ █ █████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████
Wrong trigger. Water is essential to human health, but we have no idea whether it’s supplied by a government agency. If it is, then (A) can’t support the conclusion that private companies shouldn’t supply water.
b
If something is █████████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ███████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████
Wrong trigger. We have no idea whether private companies are unwilling or unable to supply water. If they’re willing and able to supply it, then (B) can’t support the conclusion that private companies shouldn’t supply water.
c
Drinking water should █████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ████████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██████
Wrong trigger. We have no idea whether private companies are able to consistently supply clean and safe water. If they are able to, then (C) can’t support the conclusion that private companies shouldn’t supply water.
d
The mere fact ████ █████████ ████████ ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ███████
We’re trying to establish that private companies shouldn’t supply water because their purpose is not to promote health. (D) says that just because something promotes health doesn’t mean that it was intended to promote health. This doesn’t help justify the conclusion.
e
If something is █████████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ████████████ █████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███████
Water is necessary for human health. So, if water should be provided by an organization whose primary purpose is promoting health, this supports the conclusion that water should not be supplied by private companies, since their primary purpose is making profit.