PrepTest 152, Section 3, Question 18
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)
Which one of the following,(13 more words not shown)
- AA new drug(14 more words not shown)
- BIn patients with(16 more words not shown)
- CSubjects in a(9 more words not shown)
- DSome governments restrict(12 more words not shown)
- EThere are societies(6 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
B's vulnerable claim is about people and society: the urge to blame is so deeply rooted that scientific arguments may not remove it, and it seems to serve important social needs. I'd look for evidence that people can live together without that urge. That would challenge the reason for treating blame as something reform must preserve.
What we’re looking for
Don't get pulled into proving or disproving free will. We can discuss what would happen in Harry Potter's world without first proving that world exists. Likewise, B can consider what follows if people lack free will without settling that premise. The target here is the argument about blaming.
Working the answers
- A
Gaining apparent control over symptoms doesn't show that people can abandon blame. This concerns a patient's abilities, not the social role B assigns to blaming.
- B
Isolating parts of the brain might bear on an argument about interconnected brain processes. It doesn't tell us whether people blame or whether blaming serves a social need. This misses B's argument.
- C
Random responses to a stimulus don't establish anything about the strength or usefulness of the blaming urge. The relevant connection is missing.
- D
This shows that the legal use of blame can be restricted, but the governments still use it for some conduct. It also doesn't establish that people in those societies lack a broader concept of blame. Limited legal use is a smaller challenge than the complete absence described in E.
- ECorrect
Societies with no concept of blame directly challenge B's suggestion that blaming is intrinsic to human social life. That doesn't prove every existing society could remove it without cost, but it gives us a substantial reason to doubt B's general claim.
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