Logical Reasoning

PT137 · S3 · Q20 Principle: One should criticize

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Principle: One should criticize the works or actions of another person only if the criticism will not seriously harm the person criticized and one does so in the hope or expectation of benefiting someone other than oneself.

Principle

Criticism will seriously harm the critiqued or → Don't criticize Not hoping to benefit other people

Application

Jarrett shouldn't have criticized O, because the defects in O's essay were so obvious that pointing them out benefited no one.

Evaluation

Since the application is trying to conclude that J shouldn't have criticized, we want to look at rule (contrapose if needed) so that "shouldn't have criticized" is on the right side, where conclusions go. To justify that conclusion, we just need to establish one (or both) of the criteria on the left of the arrow, since it's an "or" rule.

the critique seriously harmed Ostertag or Jarrett had no hope or expectation that the critique would benefit someone else

Goal

We know that the critique benefited no one, but we would need to know that Jarrett had no hope or expectation of benefiting others. Or we need to know the critique seriously harmed Ostertag.

20.

Which one of the following, if true, justifies the above application of the principle?

  1. Correct

    Jarrett knew that the defects

    Why this is right

    This establishes the 2nd of the two criteria.

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

    53% picked this

  2. Jarrett's criticism of the essay

    Does Not Establish Either Criterion

    We are looking for "seriously harmed Ostertag" or "Jarrett never thought it would benefit anyone else". This answer is not coming close to giving us either of those ideas.

    10% picked this

  3. Jarrett knew that the criticism

    Does Not Establish Either Criterion

    We're looking for "seriously harmed Ostertag" or "Jarrett never thought it would benefit anyone else". This answer comes close to both, but "might antagonize" is not the same as "did seriously harm". And the fact that J knew that the criticism might annoy Ostertag doesn't settle the issue of whether Jarrett thought the criticism would benefit someone else. The person benefiting doesn't have to be the one critiqued. It's possible that Jarrett thought that criticizing Ostertag might annoy Ostertag but benefit one of the other writers in the class who could learn to avoid Ostertag's errors.

    12% picked this

  4. Jarrett hoped to gain prestige

    Does Not Establish Either Criterion

    This doesn't come close to getting us "seriously harmed Ostertag". It's closer to "Jarrett never thought it would benefit anyone else", but you can hope for more than one thing with a given action. Jarrett might have hoped to gain prestige and hoped to benefit someone else. If this said "Jarrett only hoped to gain prestige by criticizing Ostertag", then it would guarantee us that Jarrett did not hope to benefit someone else.

    12% picked this

  5. Jarrett did not expect the

    Does not Establish Either Criterion

    This is close to establishing that "Jarrett never thought it would benefit anyone else", but this only talks about whether it would benefit Ostertag. It's possible that Jarrett didn't think Ostertag would benefit from the critique but still thought other classmates would. The rule is about whether someone other than the critic would benefit, but the rule doesn't say it needs to be the person being critiqued who benefits.

    13% picked this

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