Q7 - Philosopher: Both the

[meliketoparty]

Hi: -

I really don't understand (D). I chose (B) because I thought it linked together free will & confroming oneself to a principle.

(D) states: It is impossible to have desires w/out also being a moral agent.

In the real world, we can say people make a myriad of choices w/out conforming oneself to a principle. Is (D) correct b/c it's linking up the 1st part of the arg that says "Both the consequences & motives of human actions have bearing on the moral worth of those actions"? In other words, a desire, any desire, inspires an action, regardless of its consequences, and that person is a moral agent?

I'm feeling pretty sheepish on this question since I practically had a phil minor in college...back to the Cave for me, I suppose...

[timmydoeslsat]

You are doing fine. The answer is B.

Do not let a #7 question get to you.

We have a necessary assumption question stem.

Our argument is this:

MA ---> Desire to conform
____________________
MA ---> Free will

First off all, our evidence does not mention free will. This can be expected to be brought up by an answer choice.

Secondly, this is a classic conditional reasoning necessary assumption question. In the construct of making this argument, we must have the [Desire to conform ---> Free will] link.

Answer choice D is giving us a reverse logic of the premise used in the argument. Plus, it does nothing to address our idea of free will.

[jam0788]

For (B)
I don't understand why desiring to conform is sufficient and free will is the necessary condition. Why isn't it the other way around?

[ohthatpatrick]

When it comes to symbolizing conditional statements, we should learn/memorize the most frequently used keywords as well as understand that when we're trying to bridge a gap between Premise and Conclusion, we want that bridge to look like
Premise Idea --> Conclusion Idea.

The conditional keywords in this stimulus and in all the answer choices relate to the idea of necessity, of something required.

Required things go on the Right.

(Or even more simply, whatever is Necessary belongs on the Necessary side of the conditional statement)

If I say
"Going to law school requires that you take the LSAT"
or
"to go to law school, one must take the LSAT"
or
"one cannot go to law school without taking the LSAT"
or
"it is impossible to go to law school without taking LSAT"
or
"one cannot go to law school if one does not take the LSAT"

the LSAT is the required thing. It goes on the right.

Going to law school --> took LSAT

In (B), "Desiring to conform to a principle requires free will", free will is required, so it goes on the right.

Desire to conform --> free will

In case anyone was thrown by the throwaway first sentence, remember to use the keywords they give us to see which idea is supporting or being supported.

Here they provide us with because, which indicates to us that the 2nd idea is supported by the 3rd idea. That gives us our argument core.

CONC:
Moral agents require free will
(why?)
PREM:
(because) Moral Agents must desire to conform to a principle

Missing link:
If you desire to conform to a principle, you have free will.

=== other answers ====
(A) Moral Agent --> Concern for Consequences of Actions
although it was said that 'consequences' matter when it comes to the moral worth of an action, the author never said that 'concern for consequences' mattered when it comes to whether or not you're a moral agent.

(C) Act w/o considering consequences --> Not Free
Again, 'considering the consequences' was never brought up, and the author is never trying to link "whether or not you're free" to "whether or not you considered the consequences of your actions"

(D) Having desires --> Being a Moral Agent
"having desires" is too broad for what was being discussed here -- we're specifically talking about "desire to conform to a principle". The author would probably admit that a flower has desire for sunshine or a dog has a desire for a biscuit, but he doesn't need to say the flower or dog is a moral agent.

(E) Perform morally worthy action --> conformed to a principle
This one seems tempting, because it's plausible as an ethical rule, but it's not an essential link THIS argument needs. "performing a morally worthy action" is totally outside the scope of the argument core. The argument core only deals with 3 ideas:
-being a moral agent
-having free will
-desiring to conform to a principle

Hope this helps.