PrepTest 152, Section 3, Question 17
Passage A The legal system rests on the(480 more words not shown)
Passage A(261 more words not shown)
Passage B(227 more words not shown)
It is most likely that(20 more words not shown)
- AA significant portion(6 more words not shown)
- BIf free will(12 more words not shown)
- CPeople should be(11 more words not shown)
- DActions that are(8 more words not shown)
- EIt is easy(9 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The clearest disagreement concerns what the law should do with blame. A wants to remove blameworthiness because untangling free choice from genetics and environment is impossible. B thinks the urge to blame may remain even if behavior is not freely chosen, and says reform should respect its social role.
What we’re looking for
We need both sides of the disagreement. A statement B rejects isn't enough unless A would accept it, and a claim about imprisonment goes beyond a claim about assigning blame.
Working the answers
- A
A gives free will, if it exists, only a small role. B does not establish that a significant share of choices is free. We can't supply B with that opposing position just because it doubts A's reform.
- BCorrect
A's recommendation to remove blame would apply if free will did not exist. B does not think that premise settles the policy question: blaming may perform useful social functions, and those needs should still be respected. The disagreement is whether lack of free will warrants excluding blame from criminal law.
- C
Neither argument gives a policy specifying who should be imprisoned. A's interest in future behavior could still support measures to prevent harm; removing moral blame is not automatically a rule against confinement. We lack the opposing imprisonment positions this answer requires.
- D
A treats conduct wholly driven by physical processes as not independently free. B's conditional discussion is compatible with that idea. The disagreement arises over the legal response, not this description of determination.
- E
B clearly thinks eliminating blame is difficult. But A's recommendation to remove it from criminal justice doesn't claim that doing so is easy, much less easy throughout everyday life. Should change and easy to change are different claims.
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