Most people acknowledge that not all governments have a moral right to govern and that there are sometimes morally legitimate reasons for disobeying the law, as when a particular law prescribes behavior that is clearly immoral. ██ ██ ████ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ████ █ █████ ████ ██ ████ █ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ███
Most people's perspective ·Moral duty to obey law because it's law; some rare exceptions
Commentators' perspective ·Reject PA because PA has 2 implications that are absurd
PA allegedly implies (1) all governments are morally equal, and (2) people are morally allowed to do whatever they want (kill people, commit fraud, etc.)
Deny implication 2 ·PA doesn't have to think people can do whatever they want
People still have moral duties not to harm others (a duty that doesn't stem from law). Also, There's a moral duty to help others, which might justify supporting government policies/actions. And, there's a moral duty to follow laws if failing to follow them leads to harm.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
23.
By attributing to commentators the ████ ████ █████████████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███ ██████████████████ ███████████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████
Question Type
Meaning in context (of word, phrase, or idea)
Structure
We need to look at the text around “counterintuitive” to get a better sense of its meaning in context. At the end of P1, we see that some commentators reject PA because of its counterintuitive implications: that all governments are morally equal, and that all people are morally allowed to do whatever they want. The commentators believe that these implications are “counterintuitive” simply because they conflict with most people’s general beliefs.
a
the implications conflict ████ ████ ████████ ████ ███████
The commentators believe that the implications of philosophical anarchism are counterintuitive because they conflict with some commonly held beliefs. In other words, most people do not believe that governments are morally equal and that people are morally allowed to do what they want. Note that “counterintuitive” describes what the commentators— not the author— believe about the theory’s implications.
b
there is little █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███ ████████ ████
Like (C), the author thinks that the alleged implications of PA are not actually true; he spends P2 and P3 rejecting the commentators’ criticisms. But in the context of P1, the word “counterintuitive” describes what the commentators— not the author— believe about the theory’s implications. The commentators believe that the implications are counterintuitive because they conflict with most people’s beliefs.
c
common sense indicates ████ █████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████████████
Like (B), the author thinks that PA does not have the implications described by the commentators. But in the context of P1, the word “counterintuitive” describes what the commentators— not the author— believe about the theory’s implications. The commentators believe that the implications are counterintuitive because they conflict with most people’s beliefs.
d
the implications appear ██ ██ ████████████ ████ ████ █████
Neither the author nor the commentators suggest that the two alleged implications of PA conflict with one another. Instead, the commentators believe that the implications are counterintuitive because they conflict with most people’s beliefs.
e
each of the ████████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ █████████████
The author denies that PA has the implications described by the commentators, but he never claims that they’re logically inconsistent. Even if he did, the word “counterintuitive” describes what the commentators— not the author— believe about the theory’s implications. The commentators believe that the implications are counterintuitive because they conflict with most people’s beliefs.
Difficulty
57% of people who answer get this correct
This is a very difficult question.
It is slightly harder than the average question in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%148
160
75%171
Analysis
Meaning in context (of word, phrase, or idea)
Structure
Critique or debate
Law
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
57%
165
b
2%
157
c
7%
158
d
11%
158
e
23%
160
Question history
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