Reading Comprehension

PT152 · S3 · P3 · Q17 The Concept of Blame

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Passage A The legal system rests on the assumption that people use conscious deliberation when deciding how to act—that is, in the absence of external duress, people freely decide how to act.

Passage A

The main takeaway from this passage is the first sentence of last paragraph: let's get rid of "blame" as a part of the legal vocabulary.

How did we get there?

The legal system rests on an assumption of free will, but we're also aware that behavior often takes place in the absence of free will.

So the crucial legal question becomes -- how much of our behavior is truly free? Neuroscience says "none of it is". The author isn't ready to say "none", but she admits in the 3rd paragraph that it's probably only a tiny sliver of our behavior.

Since we don't want court cases to become impossible arguments over whether the defendant's behavior came from a rare bit of free will or from a lifetime of genetic / environmental influences, we should stop trying to debate blame and should just think about how we avert bad behavior in the future.

Passage B

This passage is essentially a continuation of Passage A ---

The idea that 'rational arguments will only get you so far' is foreshadowing the author's argument that there is some emotional/instinctive component to blame that we won't be able to shed: - blaming urge deeply rooted in our psyche - we tried rehabilitation instead of retribution before, and retribution made a comeback. - there seems to be some social function played by blaming, and so the criminal justice system needs to reckon with that as it considers getting rid of "blame" as a concept.

Similarities

Both passages are discussing blame, the legal system, free will, rehab vs. punishment.

Differences

Passage A is arguing we should get rid of "blame". Passage B is arguing,

17.

It is most likely that the authors of the passages would disagree with each other about the truth of which one of the following statements?

  1. A significant portion of people’s

    Both Would Disagree

    Passage B is sort of accepting out of the gate that we don't have free will, so he would disagree with this claim. And Passage A would also disagree with this claim because it says "a significant portion" of choices are made freely. Passage A said that, One thing seems clear: if free will does exist, it has little room in which to operate. It can at best be a small factor ...

    5% picked this

  2. Correct

    If free will does not

    Why this is right

    This speaks to the difference in main points, as we anticipated. They just found a putrid way to word it, as is their talent. Passage A concludes by saying that given that free will does not exist or barely exists, "blameworthiness should be removed from the legal argot" (from the legal vocabulary) Passage B concludes with the author defending the idea that blame does still perform some useful social function. It can't be harmless amputated (it would harm us to get rid of the concept of blame). The criminal justice system "should seek a better understanding of why people blame and try to continue to respect the underlying social needs (continue to assign blame)."

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

    66% picked this

  3. People should be imprisoned for

    Out of Scope: should be imprisoned

    Neither author discussed anything in the realm of their thoughts on whether people should or shouldn't be imprisoned. Even if you think people lack free will and shouldn't be blamed for a crime, you still might think they should be imprisoned because they're a danger to society, so we can't presume any leaps from the author's positions on blame to their potential positions on imprisonment.

    5% picked this

  4. Actions that are completely determined

    Both Would Agree

    This is a fishy answer for Passage B, which really didn't get into the nitty gritty of whether free will exists. But by definition if an action is "completely determined by physical processes" then we're not calling it free. So both authors would agree with this.

    5% picked this

  5. It is easy to eliminate

    Trap

    Out of Scope Passage A: easy to eliminate We know that Passage B would heartily disagree with this answer, but we couldn't support the idea that Passage A would argue, "It is easy to eliminate the concept of blame from everyday life". Passage A says we should eliminate the concept from our legal vocabulary, but that doesn't mean it will be easy to do so, let alone outside the legal world in everyday life.

    20% picked this

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