Logical Reasoning

PT102 · S2 · Q25 Jack’s aunt gave him her will

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Jack’s aunt gave him her will, asking him to make it public when she died; he promised to do so.

Jack's Action

Don't make the will public

Jack's Rationale

If the will were made public, all the money would go to George, which would benefit neither him nor anyone else.

If it's not made public, the money will go to his mom, who would use it to benefit herself and others, harming no one.

Evaluate

Jack definitely needs to Weigh Tradeoffs. On the one hand, he promised his aunt to make the will public. On the other hand, it seems like if he didn't make the will public, more people would benefit.

We need an answer that forces him to decide not to make the will public.

Goal

Let's look for something like .

25.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, would require Jack to act as he did in the situation described?

  1. Duties to family members take

    Opposite, if anything

    Jack's aunt is his family member, and he has a duty to keep his promise to her, so if duties to family members take priority over everything, then he must make the will public. He doesn't have any duty to break his promise and make the money benefit his mom instead.

    2% picked this

  2. Violating a promise is impermissible

    Opposite, if anything

    We don't have any information that would trigger this rule, but if it were triggered (if keeping the will private would be come known by others), it would do the opposite of what we want. This answer is leaning towards the "Jack should keep his promise and make the will public" choice, but we need an answer that supports the "break the promise and let mom get the money" choice.

    1% picked this

  3. One must choose an alternative

    Weak Match

    This is very close. The choice to "break promise and let mom get money" would benefit some and harm no one. But do we know that the choice to "keep promise and let George get money" would harm some and benefit no one? We know that it would benefit no one, but it's never established that letting George squander this money would harm anyone.

    29% picked this

  4. Correct

    When faced with alternatives it

    Why this is right

    This rule does indeed force Jack to choose the "break promise, let mom have money" option. That option "benefits Mom and others", whereas the "keep promise, let George have money" option will "benefit neither George nor anyone else". So if Jack is following this rule, then it is obligatory that he chooses not to make the will public, so that the money goes to his Mom instead of George, so that the greatest number of people benefit.

    Skill tested: Principle-Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    62% picked this

  5. A promise becomes nonbinding when

    Too Weak

    This answer choice does more than nothing --- it absolves Jack of worrying about his promise. It's now a nonbinding issue. Nonbinding doesn't mean meaningless. Governments pass nonbinding resolutions that they hope will be followed, even if they aren't going to prosecute rulebreakers (a lot of COVID mask ordinances were nonbinding). So Jack isn't bound by this promise to his aunt, now that she's dead. But, he might still be influenced by it. He might voluntarily want to follow through with his promise, even if it's nonbinding now. The question stem asked for a principle that would force Jack to keep the will private and let his mom get the money. This rule does not force Jack to do anything.

    6% picked this

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