All societies recognize certain rules

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: overrate benefits2% picked this

   all societies overrate the benefits of certain rules, such as those governing the

   We don't have any support for this opinionated, and judgmental tone of "all societies overestimate how beneficial certain rules are". The paragraph doesn't talk about the benefit of having certain rules or give us any reason to think it's less benefit than all societies think.

   2%
2. B

   Too Strong: all people incapable1% picked this

   all societies have certain rules that no people are capable

   Did we hear about any rule that "no person is capable of following"? Doesn't seem like it. We just heard about duties, such as refraining from violence or keeping an agreement. Do we have any reason to think that "no person is capable of refraining from violence or keeping an agreement"? The fact that duties can sometimes mean that people would have to go against their own self-interest might tempt us into thinking, "Oh, people won't want to go against their self-interest. Thus no person is capable of following this rule." But people are definitely capable of doing things that are harmful to their self-interest. They don't like doing it, but they're capable. And remember, this answer is not a single person is capable.

   1%
3. C

   Correct76% picked this

   all societies recognize the possibility of clashes between individual self-interest and the

   Why this is right

   This is certainly weird, but it's not new and not very strong. Since all societies have duties, and contained in the notion of duty is that you have to follow it, even if doing so would harm your self-interest, then all societies have a notion that you might have to choose (a clash) between self-interest and duty.

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

   76%
4. D

   Out of Scope: comparing duties20% picked this

   a properly functioning society will recognize that some duties take priority

   There's nothing in the argument that suggests that some duties outrank other ones. We were told that duties can outrank self-interest, but we never talked about one duty coming into conflict with another duty.

   20%
5. E

   Too Strong: societies have no right1% picked this

   societies have no right to expect people always to perform

   Similar to (A), this answer is imbued with a lot of judgmental opinion, but the background claims don't have any opinion at all. We're not allowed to speculate how someone might react to the background claims in an opinionated way. If we didn't read opinions in the stimulus, then we would (almost always) avoid opinions in the answers.

   1%