Self-study
Alia: Support Hawthorne admits that he has influence with high government officials. ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ██ █████████████ ████████ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ██ █████████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ █████████ █████████
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Stimulus Breakdown
Alia points out that Hawthorne has admitted he has influence with high government officials. She adds that he has also admitted to selling this influence to an environmental interest group. She concludes that his behavior represents unethical behavior that cannot be justified.
Martha leads with her conclusion: she disagrees that Hawthorne acted unethically. She justifies this conclusion based on the premise that the specific group Hawthorne offered his services to was a group focused on preventing water pollution. Thus, she says, Hawthorne was benefiting the public by benefiting this group.
Analysis
One way to understand what Alia and Martha disagree on is to think of their arguments in terms of assumptions: i.e., in terms of premise → conclusion structure. For Alia, the premise that Hawthorne has sold his influence is sufficient to justify the conclusion that his behavior was unethical:
sell influence → unethical
Martha disagrees with this argument, so she doesn't think that simply selling influence necessarily makes a politician's behavior unethical. The basic premise she uses to reject the conclusion that Hawthorne was unethical is that his actions ultimately were to the benefit of the public:
benefit public → /unethical to sell influence
So we can see that an important issue Alia and Martha disagree on is whether simply selling influence alone makes a politician's behavior unethical (Alia's view), or whether the results of that action can determine whether the action was ethical or unethical (Martha's view).
Analysis by ArdaschirArguelles
13.
Alia and Martha disagree on ███████
a
the meaning of ███████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ████
b
the consequences of █████████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ████ ████████
c
the standards for ███████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████
d
the meaning of ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █ ██████ █████████ ██ ██ █ ███████ ███
e
the definition of ███████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████