PrepTest 138, Section 2, Question 23

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  This rule concerns actions caused by conditions beyond the person's control. We haven't been told that the actions in question have that kind of cause. More importantly, the argument concerns how we regard an action as we gain information, while A doesn't connect justified praise or blame with regarding the action as freely performed.

• B

  A person's actual responsibility might remain unchanged no matter how much other people know. But Tolstoy's claim concerns what those other people come to regard as freely performed. A rule about actual responsibility doesn't supply the missing connection between justified judgment and that regard.

• C
  Correct

  Now justified praise or blame requires regarding the action as freely performed. Take one of the cases in which, the ethicist tells us, praise or blame is justified. The original premise requires that we know a lot about its background. C also requires that we regard it as free. So we have a case with both extensive knowledge and a judgment that the action was freely performed.

  That contradicts Tolstoy's claim that extensive knowledge of any action would make us cease to regard it as free. The direction matters: we start with an actual justified judgment, then obtain both requirements. We aren't assuming that every freely performed action deserves praise or blame.

• D

  This describes responsibility and our inclination to praise or blame, not when praise or blame is justified. It also gives no rule linking a justified judgment to regarding an action as free. The missing connection remains missing.

• E

  This tells us how we regard an action when we don't know much about its background. Tolstoy's claim concerns what happens when we do know a lot. We could regard an action as free while knowing little and stop doing so after learning more. E is compatible with Tolstoy rather than establishing the ethicist's rejection.