PrepTest 153, Section 4, Question 16
Passage A Some legal theorists reject the notion(475 more words not shown)
Passage A(237 more words not shown)
Passage B(246 more words not shown)
The authors would be most(5 more words not shown)
- Aa judge's believing(23 more words not shown)
- Bpublic debate of(11 more words not shown)
- Cthe judicial duty(14 more words not shown)
- Din nonlegal settings,(9 more words not shown)
- Ewhen considering a(21 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The disagreement isn't whether honesty is generally valuable. Both authors favor it. Ask what happens when honesty doesn't produce the best outcome. A says the duty to tell the truth is an independent moral constraint. B says the practical case probably doesn't rule out deception that yields a net benefit.
What we’re looking for
So our prediction is a disagreement about whether the duty depends on favorable consequences.
Working the answers
- A
Neither author tells us whether believing some, but not all, of the stated reasons qualifies as a violation of candor. We can't use that unaddressed distinction to establish disagreement.
- B
B emphasizes how debate constrains judicial power. A doesn't reject that function or say debate is unnecessary. Support from one author plus silence from the other doesn't establish opposing views.
- CCorrect
A explicitly says truth-telling duties are not justified merely by good outcomes. That independent moral basis supports a duty even when the results don't justify it. B's defense remains a cost-benefit argument and leaves open justified deception where there is a net benefit. This captures the difference we predicted.
- D
A refers to ordinary moral duties, but B confines its argument to judicial candor. B's willingness to consider a judicial exception doesn't establish a position about truth telling in every nonlegal setting.
- E
Neither author tells us that weighing costs and benefits is usually easy. They disagree about whether those consequences supply the full basis of the obligation, not about how difficult the arithmetic is.
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