#23 - Ethicist: Marital vows often contain the promise to

[Dancingbambarina]

I was troubled with this sentence in relation to AnsChoice B:

"and a promise to do something not within one’s control makes no sense."

Surely then, B means the promises MAKE SENSE, which means that love does not refer to a feeling, because B states People should not make promises to do
something that is not within their control.

Thank you

[Adam Tyson]

I don't see how you're getting that interpretation, Dancing. The stimulus tells us that it makes no sense to promise to do something that is not within our control. Answer B does nothing to contradict that. It just adds the idea that one shouldn't do that. Don't make those kinds of promises. That's a very tempting answer for most students, but it doesn't really get to the conclusion, which isn't about what promises should not be made, but about how those promises should be interpreted.

I might promise my wife that I will never let an earthquake knock our house down. I have no control over that, though, so the promise makes no sense. Answer B is saying I shouldn't make that promise. But I did make the promise; I did something I should not have done. The claim that I shouldn't have done it has no effect on the fact that I did actually make the promise, and that it still makes no sense because I have no control over it. "You shouldn't have done that" doesn't mean I didn't do it. It's just a value judgment about what I did.