PrepTest 133, Section 2, Question 23
Ethicist: It would be a mistake to say(58 more words not shown)
The assertion that people are(25 more words not shown)
- AIt is a(9 more words not shown)
- BIt makes an(18 more words not shown)
- CIt is a(20 more words not shown)
- DIt is, according(11 more words not shown)
- EIt reports an(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Suppose someone finds a wallet and returns it without ever wanting to keep the money. Does the absence of temptation mean that person deserves no praise?
The ethicist says we shouldn't deny praise just for that reason. Someone can do the right thing without first having to wrestle with an urge to do the wrong thing.
Now compare two people. One wants to keep the money but resists. We regard that successful resistance as especially virtuous. The other once struggled with that temptation but has worked to eliminate it. The ethicist says the second person is no less virtuous. Why should successfully getting rid of a bad desire leave someone less worthy than merely holding it back?
There is a question we might still raise: never having had a temptation isn't the same as having worked to extinguish it. The opening claim covers people who aren't tempted, while the final comparison specifically concerns people who have eliminated the desire. But we're asked about a statement's role, so let's keep that concern separate from understanding what the ethicist is doing.
What we’re looking for
The target statement is the one praising successful resistance. The ethicist accepts it, then limits what someone may infer from it. Yes, resisting temptation is especially virtuous. No, that doesn't mean people without temptation must be undeserving of praise. The comparison with someone who has eliminated the desire is the response to that mistaken inference.
Working the answers
- A
The ethicist doesn't supply reasons to prove that people who resist temptation are considered especially virtuous. That observation is granted. The argument goes on to explain why it doesn't justify denying praise to someone without the bad desire. A mistakes an accepted starting point for a claim the author is trying to establish.
- BCorrect
This is dense, so put a concrete meaning behind each part. The 'observation' is that we consider people especially virtuous when they successfully resist a desire to do wrong. The 'claim that the argument concludes is false' is that someone deserves no praise simply because that person had no inclination to do wrong.
The observation is 'insufficient to justify' that claim because praising resistance doesn't make resistance a requirement for deserving praise. Someone who has eliminated the bad desire can be no less virtuous than someone still resisting it. In ordinary language: admiring the person who struggles doesn't require dismissing the person who no longer has to struggle.
- C
The ethicist doesn't blame our admiration for successful resistance for preventing an adequate understanding of virtue. That admiration is accepted. The mistake lies in extending it into an exclusion: only people who struggle with temptation can deserve praise. We can keep the admiration while rejecting that further claim.
- D
The target observation isn't called false. The ethicist concedes it with 'although we do consider.' What is rejected is a conclusion someone might draw from it about people without temptation. D confuses disagreeing with that inference with denying the observation itself.
- E
The target is a concession the ethicist needs to address, not the direct reason for the final position. Saying that resisting temptation is especially virtuous might initially make the opposing view attractive. The support for the ethicist's response comes from the next comparison: extinguishing the desire is no less virtuous. Calling the target simply evidence for the conclusion misses the contrast between the conceded point and the response to it.
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