PrepTest 104, Section 4, Question 13

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  This goes from Robin's inability to the supposed inability of Robin's friends. It does not say that Robin and the friends couldn't solve the problem together. To resemble the historian, it would need to move from people failing individually to the group failing collectively. As written, it treats one person's limitation as evidence about other individual people, which is a different mistake.

• B

  This assesses Hank's potential contribution to a team based on his failure to win an individual race. That might overlook ways he could help in a relay, but it doesn't conclude that the entire team cannot win because Hank cannot win. The recommendation concerns whether to pick this member; the historian transfers a restriction on individuals to society as a whole. Mentioning a team doesn't create the same structure.

• C

  This argues for treating people in similar circumstances alike. If an act is wrong for one person, the answer says another similarly situated person shouldn't receive an arbitrary exemption. It compares one individual's case with another individual's case. It doesn't infer that a collective group has the same limitation or moral status as its members. The moral language matches the topic, not the flaw.

• D
  Correct

  Map the people in society to the members of the club, and society as a whole to the club as a whole. The historian says individual people shouldn't have a certain power, so society shouldn't have it either. This answer says individual members can't afford a tent, so the club can't afford one either. Both transfer a claim about the members to the collective group without showing that it carries over.

  The problem becomes concrete if the members pool their money. Ten people could each have $20, too little to buy a $100 tent individually, while the club can readily buy one using their combined $200. Likewise, collective decision-making could differ from giving one individual control. The members' limitation doesn't settle what is possible or appropriate for the group.

• E

  This starts with people agreeing and explains that shared agreement doesn't guarantee correctness: they could all share the same mistake. To the extent it moves between society and individuals, it moves from society being mistaken to the people who share its judgment being mistaken. That is not the historian's move from a limitation of individual members to a limitation of the collective. Don't choose it just because it mentions both society and individuals.