Self-study
To perform an act that is morally wrong is to offend against humanity, and all offenses against humanity are equally bad. ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ █ ████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ █████
Identify the Principles
The stimulus takes the form of an argument, but we're just interested in the principles it invokes in making that argument. In other words, we care about the premises rather than the ultimate conclusion.
The stimulus gives us two principles. We can also infer a third principle from combining the first two.
• To perform a morally wrong act is to offend against humanity
• All offenses against humanity are equally bad
• Inference: All morally wrong acts are equally bad
Objective: Find a Conforming Judgment
Our goal now is to find the answer choice that conforms to these principles. There are a couple possible judgments that the correct answer could make.
First, we could find a situation that affirms these principles. The correct answer could say that because an act is morally wrong, it is an offense against humanity. Similarly, it could say that two morally wrong acts are equally bad.
Second, we could make use of the contrapositive of one or more principles. For instance, the correct answer could say that an act doesn't offend against humanity, so it's not morally wrong, or that two acts are unequally bad, so one of them isn't morally wrong.
15.
Which one of the following █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██████
a
If lying is ███████ ██████ ███████ █ ███ ██ ██ ███ ██ █████████ ████████
We know from combining the two principles in the stimulus that
b
Risking one’s life ██ ████ ███ █████ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ███████
The stimulus only tells us about acts that are morally wrong, not acts that are morally good. We have no principle that lets us compare the moral goodness of different acts. It's entirely possible that moral goodness comes in many levels, even though all morally wrong acts are equally bad.
c
If stealing is ███████ ██████ ██ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███████
Although the stimulus talks about morality, it doesn't talk about what's important to society. (C) would conform to the stimulus if it instead said that stealing was just as bad as murder.
d
Accidentally causing the █████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ███████
We know that all morally wrong acts (i.e. offenses against humanity) are equally bad, and that murder is morally wrong. But we don't know if accidentally causing death is morally wrong, so this judgment doesn't follow from the principles in the stimulus.
e
In a situation ██ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ████
The stimulus says that all morally wrong acts are equally bad. But there's nothing telling us if letting someone die through inaction is morally wrong. In fact, we don't even know if killing someone to save another person's life is morally wrong (or if it counts as murder).