PrepTest 142, Section 3, Question 17
Passage A  To a neuroscientist, you are your(463 more words not shown)
Passage A(205 more words not shown)
Passage B(266 more words not shown)
Both passages are concerned with(7 more words not shown)
- AShould people be(9 more words not shown)
- BDoes scientific research(10 more words not shown)
- CCan actions that(11 more words not shown)
- DIs the view(14 more words not shown)
- ECan an action(12 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Both accounts begin with the brain causing behavior and ask what that means for freedom. A uses the challenge to free choice to argue against retribution. B explains how free action might remain possible under a deterministic account.
What we’re looking for
The shared question must stop short of A's particular legal recommendation. B never develops a criminal-punishment policy.
Working the answers
- A
A asks what justifies punishing people whose choices may be outside their control. B discusses free and constrained actions, but does not decide whether people should be punished for them. Related ideas are not the same as both authors addressing this question.
- BCorrect
A treats neuroscientific findings as a challenge to freely chosen moral action. B starts with mechanistic brain research and explains a view on which determined actions can still be free. Both therefore examine the implications of brain research for freedom of the will.
- C
A proposes deterrence as an alternative purpose for punishment. B does not discuss whether threats of punishment effectively deter unfree actions. The question needs that concern in both accounts.
- D
This precisely targets A's move from neuroscience to rejecting retribution, but B never evaluates retribution as a justification for punishment. A good description of one account is insufficient here.
- E
Physical coercion is an example of constraint in B. A talks about causes beyond a person's control without examining the specific question of someone else physically forcing an action. This reverses the one-account problem.
More Organization questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Organization questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.