#17 - The difference between manners and morals is that the former are necessarily

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (A).

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[jlam061695]

I cannot see at all why A makes sense; how does the stimulus address "causing harm" and where does it mention harm? I chose C because it was the only one that I thought made some sense based on my diagram:

M (manners) S (necessarily social in nature)
Mor (morals) S (not necessarily social in nature)
___________________________________________________________________
A (when one is alone) RE (rules of etiquette cannot be applied)

I interpreted the conclusion in terms of the stimulus:
S (not social, which I interpreted as synonymous with "when one is alone") M (manners do not apply, which I translated from "rules of etiquette cannot be applied")

I know that C does not necessarily match up with the conclusion, but I chose it because it stated that "when one is alone," which I thought was synonymous with "not social." I am aware that the "rules of morality" do not necessarily have to apply though.

[David Boyle]

I cannot see at all why A makes sense; how does the stimulus address "causing harm" and where does it mention harm? I chose C because it was the only one that I thought made some sense based on my diagram:

M (manners) S (necessarily social in nature)
Mor (morals) S (not necessarily social in nature)
___________________________________________________________________
A (when one is alone) RE (rules of etiquette cannot be applied)

I interpreted the conclusion in terms of the stimulus:
S (not social, which I interpreted as synonymous with "when one is alone") M (manners do not apply, which I translated from "rules of etiquette cannot be applied")

I know that C does not necessarily match up with the conclusion, but I chose it because it stated that "when one is alone," which I thought was synonymous with "not social." I am aware that the "rules of morality" do not necessarily have to apply though.

Hello,

The stimulus doesn't really discuss harm, but answer A discusses "ever having caused any other person any harm", with "any other person" bringing up the idea of social vs. solo. And one could be immoral by oneself.
As for "Mor (morals) S (not necessarily social in nature)", that might be misleading. The stimulus says morals aren't NECESSARILY social, not that they're never social. Sometimes I put a slash through the arrow itself, not through the necessary condition, to indicate that something is not necessarily so, but still possible.
Although "the rules of etiquette do not apply when one is alone", that doesn't mean that the rules of morality don't apply when one is with others. So there's no reason to think that answer C, "The rules of morality apply only when one is alone", is correct.

David

[BeyondPossum]

I just created an account to pointlessly complain about this question in my favorite manner--on abstruse philosophical grounds. A is not derivable from the stimulus. Just because one is alone doesn't mean no immoral acts can affect another person. First, one may harm oneself, and doing so may harm a future person in the same animal with a distinct personal identity. Second, more familiarly, one may do actions when one is alone that affect others. One can think bigoted thoughts when alone, which is immoral and also ultimately harms a target of the bigotry later because the thinker has conditioned in themselves implicit biases they will deploy later. The president, alone in her office, can immorally deploy a nuke, killing thousands. The only way A is cleanly derivable is if the subject is *truly* alone, I.e., the only person ever in the universe. As the other commenter pointed out, A also uses language not in the stimulus, which, thankfully, LSAC seems to be doing less of since releasing this question.

But it's not so bad a Q because all the wrong answers can be eliminated.

[Dana D]

Hey BeyondPossum,

I think you actually misread the question here - 'the former' means the first topic listed, which in this case is manners, while 'the latter' refers to morals. The conclusion, therefore, is saying 'rules of etiquette', or manners, don't apply when one is alone because manners are social constructs. On the other side of that, because morals are not just social constructs, they apply even when one is alone. Therefore, answer choice (A) must be true - even if alone or without causing someone else harm, one can be immoral. Using the same example as you, if we say it is morally wrong to harm oneself, a person could be alone and harm themselves which would be immoral yet not cause another person harm.

Hope that helps!