Logical Reasoning

PT119 · S4 · Q3 Having lived through extraordinary childhood

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Having lived through extraordinary childhood circumstances, Robin has no conception of the moral difference between right and wrong, only between what is legally permitted and what is not.

Statements

causal (having been X, Y)

Living through a crazy childhood caused Robin to have no concept of the moral difference between right and wrong. He only knows what's legal vs. illegal.

historical fact

Robin committed an offense, knew it was illegal, but didn't know it was morally wrong.

Evaluate

The Overlapping Ideas are "right/wrong" and "illegal/legal". Can we figure out any way to synthesize those ideas?

The last sentence doesn't seem to add anything we didn't already know. Robin understands and was aware of illegality, but he doesn't know or have awareness of immorality.

We could say something boring like, "Apparently right/wrong doesn't perfectly map onto legal/illegal", because if they were one and the same, then his ability to know legal vs. illegal would mean that he effectively does have a concept of the difference between moral / immoral.

Goal

The correct answer will probably play off the distinction between right/wrong and legal/illegal. Or it might address the causal connector in the first sentence, which indicates that .

3.

From the statements above, which one of the following can be properly inferred?

  1. Robin committed no offense that

    Contradicted

    This answer is a real mind blower, because of its double negative. We might want to collapse one of these ideas into a different label so that it's easier to process what this is saying. "not legally permissible" = illegal So this answer says, Robin committed no offense that was illegal. What do you mean, (A)? We were told that Robin knew his offense was illegal, so it sounds like Robin did commit an offense that was illegal.

    4% picked this

  2. Correct

    Robin did something that was

    Why this is right

    Yup, we can prove this. The last sentence said it was a "fact that [Robin's offense] was a morally wrong act". Robin committed an offense. He didn't recognize the fact that it was a morally wrong act, but it is a fact that it was a morally wrong act.

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

    84% picked this

  3. Moral ignorance is never excusable

    Too Strong: never excusable

    We don't have any idea about how the "eyes of the law" handles moral ignorance. Maybe sometimes it is excusable. A morally ignorant 3-year old might accidentally do something morally wrong (maybe they steal a candy bar from a 7/11), and in the eyes of the law, do they arrest that 3 year old or potentially find her moral ignorance excusable? We have no idea.

    5% picked this

  4. Robin’s childhood could have provided

    Speculative: could have provided more

    We don't know enough about Robin's childhood to judge whether it could have provided more adequate moral training. Perhaps Robin fell out of a helicopter and was raised by wolves in the jungle. This answer is saying, "The wolves could have a done a better job providing Robin with adequate moral training".

    2% picked this

  5. Robin could now be brought

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: could now be "fixed" We don't know whether Robin's lack of a moral conception is something that can be fixed or not. It might be a permanent deficiency that can't be remedied now that he's fully cognitively developed.

    4% picked this

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