PrepTest 122, Section 1, Question 7
Two things are true of all immoral actions.(19 more words not shown)
If all of the statements(12 more words not shown)
- ASome immoral actions(13 more words not shown)
- BImmoral actions are(11 more words not shown)
- CSome actions that(16 more words not shown)
- DSome actions that(16 more words not shown)
- EEvery action performed(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
These are rules we're asked to accept, not a moral theory we need to agree with.
Every immoral action comes with guilt. If an immoral action is performed in public, it also offends public sensibilities. Keep the extra condition attached to that second rule: the passage tells us what happens when the action is public. The guilt rule has no such restriction.
What we’re looking for
Now we're asked what must be false. We want an answer that breaks one of those rules. For example, an immoral action performed in public that doesn't offend anyone would conflict with the rule about public offense. An immoral action without guilt would conflict with the guilt rule. An answer that merely adds something we weren't told can still be possible; being unproven isn't the same as being impossible.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This gives us immoral actions without guilt. The passage says that every immoral action comes with guilt, so even one exception is impossible under its rules.
The extra detail that these actions occur outside public view doesn't save the answer. Public performance matters to the rule about offending people. It isn't a condition on the separate rule requiring guilt. Private immoral actions must still be accompanied by guilt.
- B
We aren't told why immoral actions are wrong. Guilt could be the sole reason, or it could be a consequence of an action that is wrong for another reason. Describing a feature all immoral actions have doesn't settle what makes them immoral. B is unestablished, but it doesn't contradict either stated rule.
- C
Offending people doesn't automatically make an action immoral. An action could offend public sensibilities without being immoral, and then the rule requiring guilt for immoral actions wouldn't apply. C allows that situation; the passage never rules it out.
- D
Someone could feel guilty about something that isn't immoral. The passage tells us that immoral actions have guilt, not that guilt appears only with immoral actions. Even if the action also offends people, neither rule says those features force us to classify it as immoral. D could be true.
- E
This claims that guilt in a public action is enough to make the action immoral. We don't know that. But we also haven't been told that it is false. It is possible that every public action involving guilt is immoral, just as it is possible that some aren't. Only A directly conflicts with the information we must accept.
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