Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: The author argues that because threatening someone is okay sometimes, and asking for money is okay sometimes, doing both at the same time (blackmail) must also be okay sometimes.

Conclusion: It is sometimes morally acceptable to combine a request for money with a threat.

Reasoning: There are specific instances where making a threat is moral and other instances where asking for money is moral.

Analysis: This argument commits a classic error of composition. It assumes that because two separate actions are permissible in isolation, their combination must also be permissible. In the real world, we know this as the logic of blackmail—where two 'legal' things (asking for money and telling a secret) become illegal when joined. To find a parallel, look for an answer that takes two individually acceptable ingredients and concludes their mixture is also acceptable.

Passage Stimulus

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15.

Which one of the following exhibits a flawed pattern of reasoning most similar to that in the argument above?

Correct Answer
C
Like the stimulus, it infers that because drug A is healthful and drug B is healthful (each on its own), taking A and B together is healthful. That mirrors the flawed combination-from-individual-permissibility reasoning.
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