PrepTest 117, Section 4, Question 7
Since empathy is essential for people to be(24 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- ACivilized society can(20 more words not shown)
- BFailure to empathize(11 more words not shown)
- CIf everyone in(20 more words not shown)
- DMoral codes that(20 more words not shown)
- EPeople who feel(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why does civilized society need this particular kind of helping?
The first part of the sentence gives empathy a job. It is required for people to be willing to follow moral codes that sometimes ask them to set aside their own welfare to help someone else. Think of helping a neighbor even when doing so costs you something. We can accept that description without yet knowing what an entire society needs.
Then the conclusion introduces civilized society: it couldn't exist without empathy. That is a new claim. What if such a society could exist without people being willing to put others ahead of themselves? In that case, empathy could be essential to the behavior described while the behavior itself wasn't essential to civilized society.
What we’re looking for
The required assumption needs to connect those two parts. My prediction is that civilized society requires people who are willing to make this kind of sacrifice for others. That would explain why the empathy needed for that willingness matters to the society's existence.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This gives civilized society the requirement we were missing: there must be people willing, at least sometimes, to disregard their own welfare to help others. The premise has identified empathy as essential to the willingness under discussion. A makes that willingness necessary to civilized society, allowing the argument to carry the need for empathy through to its conclusion.
If a civilized society could exist without anyone willing to make that sacrifice, the stated reason for requiring empathy would no longer reach the conclusion. Notice that A doesn't require everyone to sacrifice all the time. It requires some people with at least some such willingness.
- B
The argument says empathy is required, but that doesn't mean lacking it usually leads people to perform harmful actions. A person could simply fail to supply something the society needs. Doing harm and failing to provide a necessary benefit aren't the same. This additional claim about people's usual actions is not required.
- C
This promises that a society will be civilized if everyone has the willingness described. We need the relationship in the other direction: civilized society requires that willingness. Even if the willingness were one requirement, there could be others. C gives a guarantee of civilized society that the argument doesn't need.
- D
Where the moral codes first arose doesn't establish whether civilized society needs them. They could have originated elsewhere and later been adopted. The argument concerns a requirement for civilized society, not the historical birthplace of a code.
- E
Needing empathy to have this willingness doesn't mean people with empathy tend to act on it. Empathy might be present while other obstacles keep someone from helping. The premise gives empathy a necessary role; E adds a tendency to behave a certain way that is not needed for the conclusion.
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