PrepTest 152, Section 1, Question 15
It has been said that understanding a person(27 more words not shown)
A flaw in the reasoning(8 more words not shown)
- Atreats the failure(23 more words not shown)
- Bconfuses something that(15 more words not shown)
- Ctakes for granted(14 more words not shown)
- Dignores the possibility(13 more words not shown)
- Euses the difficulty(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if you can forgive yourself without completely understanding yourself?
I'll grant the proposed rule for the sake of the argument: complete understanding leads to complete forgiveness. But that gives us one route to forgiveness. It doesn't make it the only route. Perhaps a change in outlook could allow forgiveness without resolving every question about your own motives.
What we’re looking for
The author says complete self-understanding is impossible and concludes that complete self-forgiveness must also be impossible. For the flaw, I'd describe that as ruling out an outcome just because one way of reaching it is unavailable.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The condition that brings about the outcome is complete understanding; the outcome is complete forgiveness. The argument treats our inability to meet that condition as ruling out the outcome altogether. That works only if complete understanding is the only route to forgiveness, which the stated rule never establishes.
- B
This describes confusing a requirement for an action with something produced by that action. Our argument starts with a way to bring about forgiveness and treats it as a requirement for forgiveness. It isn't taking something forgiveness requires and mistaking it for a result of forgiving. Similar conditional vocabulary doesn't make these the same mistake.
- C
The author says 'If so,' making the reasoning conditional on the proposed rule being true. We can ask what would follow if the rule were true without claiming to have independently established it. The flaw remains even after we grant that starting rule: one route still hasn't been shown to be the only route.
- D
The argument explicitly describes complete self-understanding as desirable while calling it unattainable. It therefore doesn't overlook the possibility that something impossible could still be desirable. In any event, desirability doesn't settle whether forgiveness has another route.
- E
The conclusion is that complete self-forgiveness is beyond our reach, not that we should stop trying. A claim about what is possible differs from advice about how to act. The argument gives no recommendation to abandon attempts at understanding or forgiveness.
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