Principle JustifyDiff: Hard
Logic Breakdown
Passage Summary: Giving people too much freedom is a bad idea because they make such bad choices that they eventually give up and want a dictator to take over.
Conclusion: Political systems that permit extreme personal and political freedom should not be supported.
Reasoning: Extreme freedom often leads to poor choices and destructive consequences, which can eventually cause people to favor totalitarian regimes.
Analysis: The essayist provides a series of facts about the negative outcomes of freedom but ends with a moral judgment about what we 'should' support. To justify this leap, we need a principle that connects the risk of totalitarianism to the withdrawal of support for the system. Look for a rule that states if a system's consequences lead to a worse state of affairs, that system is inherently unworthy of support. This bridges the gap between the descriptive premises and the prescriptive conclusion.
Conclusion: Political systems that permit extreme personal and political freedom should not be supported.
Reasoning: Extreme freedom often leads to poor choices and destructive consequences, which can eventually cause people to favor totalitarian regimes.
Analysis: The essayist provides a series of facts about the negative outcomes of freedom but ends with a moral judgment about what we 'should' support. To justify this leap, we need a principle that connects the risk of totalitarianism to the withdrawal of support for the system. Look for a rule that states if a system's consequences lead to a worse state of affairs, that system is inherently unworthy of support. This bridges the gap between the descriptive premises and the prescriptive conclusion.
Passage Stimulus
Passage Redacted
Unlock Full Passage19.Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the essayist's reasoning?
Correct Answer
D
This principle directly bridges the gap: if a system’s destructive consequences could lead people to prefer totalitarian regimes, then one should not support that system. That cleanly licenses the essayist’s conclusion about systems allowing extreme freedom.
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