#10 - The only motives that influence all human actions

[bbjigglercakes]

I meant to say that I know that B is the right answer; however, I picked D. So, I just want to know why D is the wrong one and B is the right one. I even diagrammed it, however, I was not sure if it is necessary for this stimulus.

Thanks in advance!

Ellen

Hello Ellen,

Diagramming often helps, even if you could guess right without diagramming; diagramming lets you prove your work correct and see if your instinct was right.
B is right because even though every human action involves self-interest, that doesn't make self-interest the paramount influence. Maybe every human action *also* involves, to make a stupid example, the desire to see "The Lone Ranger" with Johnny Depp, and that is a stronger desire than self-interest. (The reviews pretty much say that it's a terrible movie, so it might *hurt* your self-interest to see it and spend money on it!)
D gets B sort of backward, by assuming (wrongly) that self-interest is the paramount influence, when the stimulus doesn't say that. D also says that something is the only influence, whereas the stimulus merely says that self-interest is the only influence that influences *all* human actions. (Maybe other influences, influence 99.9% of human actions, which is close to 100%.)

Hope that helps,

David

Hey David, While i do understand why all the answers are wrong (A,C,D,E) i cannot wrap my mind around why B is right?
can you help me diagram that answer choice?
"takes the occurrence of one particular influence on a pattern or class of events as showing that its influence outweighs any other influence on those events".

can you help me rephrase that in layman's terms?

where is the conclusion and where is the premise in that answer choice?

[Robert Carroll]

bbjigglercakes,

The motive of self-interest is one particular influence. The pattern or class of events is represented by all human actions. Outweighing all other influences would constitute being the chief influence. So the author is trying to say that, because self-interest influences all human actions (and nothing else influences ALL human actions), it must be the chief influence - the influence that outweighs or is more important than all others.

As Nikki pointed out earlier in the thread, diagramming provides no help with this one, so while we can diagram, like Nikki did, it won't help. It's the intuitive understanding we need: "This is the only thing we always see, so it must be the most important thing."

Robert Carroll