Self-study
Philosopher: Some of the most ardent philosophical opponents of democracy have rightly noted that both the inherently best and the inherently worst possible forms of government are those that concentrate political power in the hands of a few. █████ █████ █████████ ██ █ ████████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████
Summary
The philosopher argues that a democracy is a better choice of government than rule by few, because democracy is a consistently mediocre form of government.
Notable Assumptions
The best and the worst forms of government are rule by few. But the author argues that democracy is a better choice than rule by few, since democracy is mediocre. He assumes that choosing a consistently mediocre government is better than choosing a form of government that could be either very good or very bad.
To help justify his argument, we need a rule or principle that satisfies this assumption by confirming that, when choosing a form of government, it’s better to have a mediocre form and avoid the worst form rather than trying to have the best form.
13.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████████ █████████
a
A society should █████ █ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ █ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████████
This leads to the wrong conclusion. The philosopher concludes that democracy is a better choice because it’s mediocre. He doesn’t argue that it’s better to choose a form of government that most members of the society prefer.
b
In choosing a ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ █ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ███ █████
If it’s better to avoid the worst than to aim for the best when choosing a form of government, this helps to justify the conclusion that democracy is a better choice than rule by few. Democracy is mediocre and so avoids the worst, while rule by few includes the best and the worst.
c
The best form ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ███ █████ █████
The conclusion isn’t about what form of government is the best. It’s about which form— democracy or rule by few— is a better choice. We already know that the best forms of government are rule by few, but we need to support the idea that democracy is still the better choice.
d
Democratic governments are ███ █████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ █████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
The philosopher doesn’t say anything about which forms of government are equitable or whether equitable forms of government are the better choice. Whether it’s equitable or not, we still need to justify the conclusion that democracy is the better choice because it’s mediocre.
e
It is better ██ ██████ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ █████████████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ███████████
This leads to the wrong conclusion. The philosopher never mentions popular preference. He doesn’t say that democracy is the better choice because of “sound philosophical reasons;” he says it’s the better choice because it’s mediocre.