Logical Reasoning

PT117 · S3 · Q19 There is no genuinely altruistic

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There is no genuinely altruistic behavior.

Conclusion

There is no genuinely altruistic behavior.

Evidence

Behavior that appears to be altruistic can be understood as being motivated by the desire to reinforce the belief that we are useful and needed, a belief we need in order to maintain a minimum of self-esteem.

Evaluate

How can we accept the Evidence, but argue the Anti-Conclusion, that there is such a thing as genuinely altruistic behavior?

I guess we could say,

We wouldn't accept an argument like,

Sure you can understand it that way, but we still think sometimes cashiers be flirtin'.

Goal

Look for an answer saying something like,

19.

A flaw in the argument is that it

  1. presupposes that anyone who is

    Opposite

    The author is closer to assuming that "anyone who is seeming to be altruistic is acting out of self-interest".

    9% picked this

  2. illicitly infers that behavior is

    Opposite Conclusion

    Any time an answer is structured like infers that X because Y the Y should match the Evidence and the X should match the Conclusion Did the conclusion say that "behavior was altruistic"? No. The opposite. The conclusion was that there is no such thing as altruistic behavior. So we can get rid of this one without bothering with the second half.

    12% picked this

  3. fails to consider that self-esteem

    Not an Objection

    Does it hurt the author's argument to say that "self-esteem also depends on maintaining an awareness of one's own value?" No, it doesn't matter if self-esteem requires 20 other things. For the purposes of the author's argument, she's just saying "given that we all need self-esteem, and that self-esteem requires X and Y (and 20 other things), seemingly altruistic behavior might really just be an attempt to obtain X and Y."

    5% picked this

  4. presumes, without providing justification, that

    Too Strong: cannot be useful / needed

    The author isn't committed to assuming that every single person who has insufficient self-esteem is useless and expendable. (and saying that certainly won't help those people with their self-esteem problem, choice D!)

    11% picked this

  5. Correct

    takes for granted that any

    Why this is right

    This says that the author assumed a certain conditional relationship, so we can look at it conditionally and ask ourselves, "Did the author make that move?": a behavior can be the behavior is interpreted as self-interested → self-interested Yeah, that does reflect the author's Premise to Conclusion move. The author establishes that "behavior that appears to be altruistic" can be interpreted as self-interested. Then, she implicitly assumes that this seemingly altruistic behavior is self-interested. That's how she arrives at the conclusion that it's not genuinely altruistic.

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

    64% picked this

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