People cannot be morally responsible

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: never23% picked this

   An infant should never be held morally responsible for an action that

   The way we can prove that "you shouldn't be held morally responsible" is if we know that "you have no control over X", or "X is an inevitable consequence of something you have no control over". Do we know that infants have no control over anything? We don't. We know they have no control over how they're treated, but maybe they have control over how they treat others (this sounds ridiculous, of course, but in LSAT must be true terms we can't make assumptions). So it's still possible that infants should be held morally responsible for some actions .

   23%
2. B

   Out of Scope: commonly performed9% picked this

   There are certain commonly performed actions for which no one performing those actions should ever

   We know that everyone sometimes acts in ways for which they should not be held morally responsible (because those actions are an inevitable consequence of how they were treated as an infant, over which they had no control). But we don't know if any of these actions are "common performed actions".

   9%
3. C

   Out of Scope: held partially responsible2% picked this

   Adults who claim that they have no control over the treatment they are receiving should often be held at least partially

   This paragraph only gives us tools for claiming that in certain circumstances people are not morally responsible or should not be held responsible. We don't have any mechanism that says, "In situations like X, people should be held (at least partially) responsible". The fact that this answer seems most related to the wishy-washy language in sentences 3 and 4 should also make it pretty unattractive.

   2%
4. D

   Illegal Negation28% picked this

   If a given action is within a certain person’s control that person should be held morally responsible for

   This paragraph only gives us tools for claiming that in certain circumstances people are not morally responsible or should not be held responsible. We don't have any mechanism that says, "In situations like X, people should be held responsible". This answer seems to just be doing an illegal negation of the first sentence. We were told, "If X isn't under your control, then you can't be morally responsible for X", so this is illegally switching that into, "If X is under your control, then you should be held morally responsible for X".

   28%
5. E

   Correct38% picked this

   No adult should be held morally responsible for every action he

   Why this is right

   We know that "everyone sometimes acts in ways for which they should not be held morally responsible" (because those actions are an inevitable consequence of how they were treated as an infant, over which they had no control). So since everyone sometimes has actions that they shouldn't be held morally responsible for, we can re-state that as "No one is ever morally responsible for 100% of their actions". This answer is saying, "Every adult has at least one action for which they should not be held morally responsible".

   Skill tested: Must be True · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   38%