Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: Manners require other people to be present to matter, but morals don't; because of this, you don't need to worry about etiquette if you're alone.

Conclusion: Rules of etiquette do not apply when a person is by themselves.

Reasoning: Manners are defined as being inherently social, whereas morals can exist outside of social contexts.

Analysis: In this 'Most Strongly Supported' task, we treat the premises as absolute facts to see what else must be true. The stimulus establishes a strict requirement for manners: they are 'necessarily social.' If etiquette is a form of manners, and manners require a social setting, it follows logically that without a social setting (being alone), etiquette cannot exist. Look for an inference that respects this distinction between the social nature of manners and the potentially private nature of morals.

Passage Stimulus

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17.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following inferences?

Correct Answer
A
If morals are not necessarily social, then it’s possible for someone to violate morality without affecting others. So one could be immoral without ever causing harm to another person.
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