Logical Reasoning

PT116 · S2 · Q20 Social critic: One of the most

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Social critic: One of the most important ways in which a society socializes children is by making them feel ashamed of their immoral behavior.

Conclusion (thus)

Moral socialization has had a net effect of increasing the total amount of suffering.

Evidence

Moral socialization works by making children feel ashamed of immoral behavior. In many people that shame produces deep guilt and self-loathing, which can be a severe hardship.

Evaluate

If we're going to try to argue that moral socialization has a net effect of reducing total suffering, we're going to have to counteract the author's evidence which speaks to ways in which moral socialization causes suffering.

Maybe, when the parents are shaming their kids for immoral behavior (), the shaming makes Billy suffer, but then he stops hitting the other kids at school with a hockey stick.

It would seem in a case like that like even though Billy's suffering went up, everybody else's suffering went down, and so moral socialization had the net effect of reducing suffering.

Goal

Look for an answer getting at this idea that moral suffering might also reduce suffering in ways the author failed to account for. The evidence for "net effect" is incomplete if you only mention ways it increases suffering but never weigh that against ways it decreases suffering.

20.

The social critic's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it

  1. overlooks the possibility that the

    Bad Description

    This is trying to say, "Hey, author -- I know you think that moral socialization is the source of suffering, but we can modify moral socialization! We don't have to completely get rid of moral socialization!" The author will respond, "I never said we should get rid of moral socialization". There was no normative recommendation. I just descriptively said that moral socialization leads to a net increase in suffering.

    3% picked this

  2. fails to address adequately the

    Bad Description

    If an answer is structured, "fails to consider that X is true, even though Y isn't true", you'd want X to match the evidence and Y to match the conclusion (or an assumption made en route to the conclusion). We know from the evidence that moral socialization (a phenom) causally contributes to the occurrence of suffering. This answer is saying, "Hey author, even though that's true, that doesn't mean that moral socialization and suffering always occur together." The author would be like, "Sure, I never said they did. In fact I only said in many people the moral socialization results in suffering." A correct answer would be more like "fails to consider that one phenom may causally contribute to the occurrence of another, even though the first phenom does not increase the overall occurrence of the second phenom."

    11% picked this

  3. presumes, without providing justification, that

    Bad Description

    This answer accuses the argument of assuming, "If moral socialization increases the total amount of suffering, then moral socialization should be changed or eliminated." Just like with (A), the author would way, "I never said we should eliminate or change moral suffering. I just descriptively claimed that it increases moral suffering." The conclusion of the argument is the trigger of this assumption. We should never see the conclusion in that position. A correct answer would be more like "presumes, w/o just, that a phenom that sometimes increases the amount of suffering therefore increases the overall amount of suffering."

    7% picked this

  4. Correct

    takes for granted that a

    Why this is right

    This is saying the author assumes that moral socialization (a behavior that sometimes leads to suffering) does not significantly reduce overall suffering. Is that true? Hell yeah! That's practically the conclusion. If we negated that assumption, we'd badly weaken the argument. We say, "Sure morally socializing kids via shaming them increases suffering, but moral socialization also significantly reduces overall suffering, so I don't think you can claim that its net effect is increasing suffering." This answer finally addresses the missing component of the author's argument. If he's gonna argue a "net effect" claim, then we need to know all the ways that moral socialization increases and decreases suffering.

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

    64% picked this

  5. presumes, without providing justification, that

    Bad Description

    This accuses the author of assuming, "If many people have a negative psychological reaction to moral socialization, then no one has a positive reaction to moral socialization." The argument doesn't claim that no one can have a positive reaction to moral socialization. It just claims many people have a negative reaction to the shame version of it. The author is failing to account for the ways that moral socialization reduces suffering (which sort of feels like ignoring the positives about moral socialization). But it's too strong to say the author assumes that moral suffering never results in a positive reaction. Saying that sometimes moral socialization leads to a positive reaction undermines the conclusion ever so slightly, but it's just one data-point of strength, whereas when we negate the assumption in the correct answer, we get a big sweeping objection to the conclusion.

    15% picked this

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