Logical Reasoning

PT114 · S4 · Q23 If an act of civil

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If an act of civil disobedience—willfully breaking a specific law in order to bring about legal reform—is done out of self-interest alone and not out of a concern for others, it cannot be justified.

Principles

act of civil disobedience done out of self-interest → can't be justified alone and not a concern for others

one's conscience requires one to perform an act of → justified civil disobedience

Evaluate / Goal

When an Apply the Principle question such as this provides two principles, we're only going to use one or the other to justify the correct answer.

As we read each answer, we should start by seeing whether the conclusion is saying "not justified", in which case we'll use rule 1, "justified", in which case we'll use rule 2, or something else, in which case we'll automatically eliminate that answer.

23.

Which one of the following judgments most closely conforms to the principles stated above?

  1. Keisha’s protest against what she

    Bad Trigger Match

    Since this one is concluding that the act of civil disobedience was justified, we should be trying to use rule 2. Does this argument establish that Keisha performed an act of civil disobedience because her conscience required her to do so? Nope. It just says she acted purely out of concern for the people of that country (language from rule 1, which is totally irrelevant here, since rule 1 can only prove that an act of C.D. was unjustified).

    12% picked this

  2. Janice’s protest against a law

    Bad Trigger Match

    Since this one is concluding that the act of civil disobedience was not justified, we should be trying to use rule 1. Does this argument establish that Janice performed an act of civil disobedience out of self-interest alone / not out of concern for others? No, it says the opposite. It said she did it solely out of concern for others.

    6% picked this

  3. In organizing an illegal protest

    Bad Trigger Match

    Since this one is concluding that the act of civil disobedience was justified, we should be trying to use rule 2. Does this argument establish that Georgette performed an act of civil disobedience because her conscience required her to do so? Nope. It just says she acted purely out of concern for the people of that country (language from rule 1, which is totally irrelevant here, since rule 1 can only prove that an act of C.D. was unjustified).

    9% picked this

  4. Correct

    Maria’s deliberate violation of a

    Why this is right

    Since this one is concluding that the act of civil disobedience was justified, we should be trying to use rule 2. Does this argument establish that Maria performed an act of civil disobedience because her conscience required her to do so? Yup! It says "she violated the law because her conscience required doing so".

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

    68% picked this

  5. In organizing a parade of

    Bad Trigger Match

    Since this one is concluding that the act of civil disobedience was not justified, we should be trying to use rule 1. Does this argument establish that Louise performed an act of civil disobedience out of self interest alone, not out of concern for others? No, it doesn't talk about that at all. Instead, it's inappropriately talking about conscience as though we're using rule 2. Rule 2 only has the power to prove that an act of civil disobedience is justified.

    5% picked this

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