Self-study
Orator: Moral excellence can be achieved only by repeatedly overcoming inclinations to do the wrong thing. ██████████ █████ ████████████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ █ ███████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██ ██████ █ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████████
Summary
The stimulus can be diagrammed as follows:
Notable Valid Inferences
If one is morally virtuous, then one has repeatedly overcome inclinations to do wrong.
21.
Which one of the following ██ █ ██████████ ████ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████████
a
A morally virtuous ██████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██████
Must be false. All morally virtuous people have overcome the inclination to do the wrong thing, which means that these people are capable of doing the wrong thing––they just overcame the urge to do so.
b
Most people who ███████ █████ ██████████ ███ ███████ █████████
Could be false. We know that all people who become morally virtuous achieve moral excellence, but we don’t know what quantity of people who achieve moral excellence are morally virtuous.
c
Someone who has ██ ███████████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ █████ ███████████
Could be false. The stimulus discusses those who have repeatedly overcome inclinations to do the wrong thing, not those who have no inclination to do the wrong thing. These are different ideas.
d
Someone who is ███ ███████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████████
Could be false. We know that all people who become morally virtuous achieve moral excellence. (D) confuses the sufficient and necessary conditions in this relationship.
e
Every morally virtuous ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ██████
Must be true. We know that all morally virtuous people have repeatedly overcome the inclinations to do something wrong, which means that they have faced this inclination before.