Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: Even if you have good intentions, trying to solve a friend's marriage issues usually fails and makes people mad, so it's a bad idea to try.

Conclusion: It is generally not justified for well-meaning people to try to fix their friends' marital problems.

Reasoning: These interventions are usually unsuccessful and result in everyone involved feeling resentful.

Analysis: The argument moves from a factual observation (the attempts are ineffective and cause resentment) to a moral or practical judgment (the attempts are unjustified). To support this, we need a principle that links the outcome of an action to its justification. The most helpful principle will likely state that an action's lack of success and its negative social consequences are sufficient to make that action unjustified, regardless of the person's good intentions.

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23.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most strongly supports the reasoning above?

Correct Answer
E
E states that actions based on good intentions are justified only if they result in success. Since these attempts are usually ineffectual, they usually fail that requirement, so they’re usually unjustified. This directly licenses the conclusion from the stated outcomes.
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