QUESTION TEXT: Ethicist: Only when we know a lot…
QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption
CONCLUSION: Tolstoy is wrong to say that if we knew enough then we wouldn’t believe in free will.
REASONING: We can sometimes blame people for their actions, but only when we know a lot about their actions.
ANALYSIS: Let’s review what the stimulus tells you:
- You can judge people.
- You can only judge people if you know a lot about their actions
- Tolstoy says that if you know a lot about actions, you won’t believe in free will.
Judge ➞ Know a lot ➞ No free will
That chain is Tolstoy’s idea. We need to prove it wrong. You’re allowed to use intuition. Most people would find it strange to judge people who have no free will.
If judgement requires free will, then Tolstoy is wrong, because the stimulus says we can judge people. This is answer C. Here’s the diagram for C (Judging now has two necessary conditions):
Judge ➞ Know a lot AND Free will ➞ Tolstoy wrong
Tolstoy is wrong because he said knowledge about actions always leads to lack of belief in free will.
___________
- This doesn’t help show that Tolstoy is wrong. We are judging people. If Tolstoy is right, we are in fact judging them for things beyond their control. This answer only shows we shouldn’t do that.
- The question doesn’t talk about whether someone is responsible for an act. It’s about whether we believe they are responsible.
- CORRECT. See the explanation above.
- The stimulus doesn’t talk about the degree of judgement we’re able to make. Irrelevant.
- This incorrectly negates Tolstoy’s premise. It doesn’t help show that Tolstoy’s claim is wrong.
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Jason says
Hi Graeme, I am a little bit confuse some conditional words. I would like to know that what is the exact meaning of the second point ‘You can only judge people if you know a lot about their actions’ in analysis. Does it equal to ‘you can judge people only if you know a lot about their actions’?
Thanks very much
FounderGraeme says
Yes, both sentences have exactly the same meaning.