Cosmic Justice

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: cannot be responsible2% picked this

   From the perspective of cosmic justice, the murderer cannot be considered responsible

   Overall, we wouldn't expect the author of Passage A to render any judgment about what cosmic justice would say. After all, the author of A doesn't think that we are omniscient enough to be able to judge through the lens of cosmic justice (which is why she doesn't think the legal system should try to dispense it). Beyond all that, this is a very extreme claim that "the murderer cannot be considered responsible for his crime".

   2%
2. B

   Opposite, if anything3% picked this

   Once the jury has convicted the murderer, the judge should be permitted substantial discretion in

   Permitting the judge substantial discretion in determining punishment sounds like the judge would be able to employ cosmic justice type thinking and issue a much more lenient punishment to someone whom she deems had a traumatic childhood and thus doesn't "deserve" as stiff a punishment. The author of A doesn't want the legal system to be dispensing cosmic justice, so it wouldn't sound like her to encourage "substantial discretion".

   3%
3. C

   Unsupported: err towards leniency4% picked this

   Recognition of our common human fallibility should lead us to err in the direction of

   The author of A thinks that recognition of our common fallibility should lead us to avoid trying to dispense cosmic justice. There isn't anything in the passage to support the idea that we should err in the direction of leniency. The author of A says in her final sentence, "The best we can reasonably do is judge primarily based upon outputs, or consequences".

   4%
4. D

   Correct87% picked this

   The extent, if any, to which the murderer's culpability is mitigated by his childhood is beyond the ability of any

   Why this is right

   This sounds the most like the embodiment of A's advice that we "should NOT attempt to dispense cosmic justice". In A's 2nd paragraph, the author is saying that whether somebody "truly deserves something is a very difficult thing for us to determine." At the end of A's 1st paragraph, the author says "we do not know all the critical relevant facts or understand all the complex causal interrelationships involved or even know definitively what cosmic justice really is."

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

   87%
5. E

   Too Strong: must presume no influence4% picked this

   The murderer's childhood must be presumed to have been without influence upon

   The author of A is saying that we shouldn't try to dispense cosmic justice because we're just not omniscient enough to "perform the complicated calculus necessary to understand how the complex interrelationships among the various variables should affect our ultimate conclusions". The author is saying, "We're not wise enough to be able to tell whether the childhood had influence on the murderer's criminal behavior .... the best we can reasonably do is judge primarily based on outputs."

   4%