Logical Reasoning

PT119 · S4 · Q19 Anger in response to insults

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Anger in response to insults is unreasonable, for insults are merely assertions that someone has undesirable characteristics.

Conclusion

Anger in response to insults is unreasonable.

Evidence (for)

Insults are merely assertions that you have an undesirable characteristic.

If the assertion is false, you should pity the person insulting you. If the assertion is true, you should be grateful for such useful information.

Evaluate

Since the Conclusion is about "anger / unreasonable response" but the evidence never once mentioned "anger / unreasonable response", we can be 99% sure that the correct answer will contain that language.

The author has laid out a binary case, arguing that In Either Case it would be unreasonable to respond with anger.

We might object,

Goal

We need an answer saying,

or something weirder like, (that would allow us to infer that if we ought to pity, we ought not to have any other response, such as anger)

19.

Which one of the following, if assumed, enables the argument's conclusion to be properly drawn?

  1. Actions prompted by ignorance do

    Unrelated to Goal

    This has no language dealing with whether or not "anger is an unreasonable response", so it can't help us to prove that language.

    3% picked this

  2. Anger is an unreasonable response

    Too Weak

    This looks pretty good, but it only proves the conclusion for one half of the author's binary. If insult is true, then it's useful information, and thus (according to this answer), anger is an unreasonable response. But ... what about if insult is false? We don't have a mechanism for proving that anger is an unreasonable response to those sorts of insults.

    15% picked this

  3. Correct

    Anger is an unreasonable response

    Why this is right

    This covers both halves of the binary. This answer looks like this: If an action should anger prompt pity or ? unreasonable should prompt response gratitude We know that insults must be true or false. If they're true they should prompt gratitude. If they're false, they should prompt pity. So insults should either prompt pity or gratitude, and thus (according to this answer choice), anger is an unreasonable response to insults.

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

    74% picked this

  4. Gratitude and pity are reasonable

    Unrelated to Goal

    This has no language dealing with whether or not "anger is an unreasonable response", so it can't help us to prove that language.

    7% picked this

  5. Pity is the only reasonable

    Bad Premise Match

    This has no language explicitly dealing with "anger" but it still allows us to rule out anger as a reasonable response, because of its restrictive wording. This rule is saying that "anger is an unreasonable reaction to people with undesirable characteristics". We're trying to prove that "anger is an unreasonable reaction to insults". Those are not the same, and we have no way to get from one to the other. An insult by Person X is an assertion that Person Y has undesirable characteristics. This answer choice is saying "anger would be an unreasonable reaction to Person Y", but the conclusion is saying "anger would be an unreasonable reaction to Person X".

    1% picked this

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