#17 - Global, Must, Author's Perspective, Point at Issue

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[Krwill]

Hello,

I am trying to understand why B is correct and where in the passages can I find the support that passage B would disagree with this statement. From my interpretation passage B dealt a lot with blame and its role in society and whether or not it is something that we could actually be rid of and that focusing on why we assign blame. It does not explicitly state an opinion on if free will does exist whether not we should assign blame, unless I missed that part. Is this something that is implied? I selected E for the reasons stated above, passage B does talk about whether or not blame can be eliminated and passage A line 24 "Blameworthiness should be removed..." and interpreted this to mean that the author would agree that it is something that could easily be removed. I was hesitant to pick the answer because of the everyday life but still felt as though it was the strongest of the 5.

[Erik Christensen]

KRwill,

Great question!! This is certainly somewhat tricky!!!

With respect to answer choice (e), I don't see any indication that the author of Passage A thinks that the concept of blame can be easily removed from everyday life. The author of Passage A certainly thinks that with respect to criminal law, that the concept of blame should be removed but there is nothing that suggests that the author of Passage A thinks that process will be easy. Obviously, as you pointed out, the author of Passage B would disagree with the statement in answer choice (e).

With respect to answer choice (b), I do think that the author of Passage B ultimately comes to the conclusion that criminal law should assign blame for actions even if free will doesn't exist. The last sentence of the second paragraph seems to indicate that the author of Passage B thinks that it will be extremely unlikely for blame not to be assigned in criminal actions and although that sentence doesn't explicitly state the author's opinion on what should happen, it states that the concept is deeply rooted in the human psyche and this sentence is somewhat suggestive of the progress of the author's thought process on this topic. The best evidence that the author of Passage B would disagree with the statement in answer choice (b) is in the first two sentences of the last paragraph whether the author indicates that he/she sees some merit in assigning blame in criminal actions (n.b. language like "blaming performs useful social function" and "blameworthiness not a harmless appendage that can be amputated").

Let us know if you have any further questions!!

ERIK

[mkarimi73]

I chose (B) as the correct answer, but could I have an explanation as to why (C) should be removed from contention? Thanks in advance.

[Luke Haqq]

Hi mkarimi73!

Happy to address answer choice (C).

To begin, we're asked whether the authors of the passage would disagree with one another. For this type of question, it can be helpful to put an "A" and "B" next to contender answers. Then, ask how the author of each of the passages would respond to the question. If it's yes/yes or no/no, then this wouldn't be a point of disagreement. In addition, watch out for instances in which it might be possible to supply an answer for one of the passages but not the other; if you don't know how one passage would respond, then this couldn't be the correct answer if asked for a point of agreement/disagreement.

Answer choice (C) states, "People should be imprisoned for actions from which they are not free to refrain." We can make a notation at the outset:

A: ?
B: ?

Next, would the author of passage A agree with this statement? The statement is effectively saying that "people should be imprisoned for actions even if they don't have free will over those actions." In the end, we don't know exactly whether or not the author of passage A would agree with this. The passage does call for getting rid of the notion of blameworthiness, as well as more anticipating how people who break the law will act in the future, but the passage doesn't advocate for or against imprisonment. As such, we're left with a ? for passage A, which is reason enough that answer choice (C) cannot be correct, since we can't verify if this is a point of disagreement.

We could still look at passage B. Doing so, it's additionally unclear whether the author of passage B would agree or disagree. The author notes that some of the purposes of punishment haven't worked, but also that blaming serves important social functions. More to the point, though, the passage doesn't make any overall judgments or advocacy for or against imprisonment. Thus we're left with a ? for passage B as well.

Answer choice (C) is incorrect because we can't verify whether the author of either passage would agree/disagree with the statement. Without this verification, it can't be a point of disagreement between them.

[mkarimi73]

So, essentially, the word "imprisoned" in answer choice (C) makes it automatically out-of-scope for both passages, correct?

I ask this question because I have a tendency to leave an answer choice like (C) on Point of Issue questions because I have this fear that the test-makers may pull a "fast one," or may try to stretch an answer choice to make it a contender. (B) is obviously the best choice because both authors actually speak to that concept. So, is it okay to just trust myself, and my reading, that a choice like (C) is out-of-scope and just eliminate it? Thanks in advance.

[Robert Carroll]

mkarimi,

The answer to any Point at Issue question must relate back to the passages (or stimulus, in Logical Reasoning). We can't simply pick the answer if it uses wording from the passage and reject it if it fails to use wording from the passage, but evaluation of answers does boil down to the following: "In what the author of A actually said, did the commit themselves to an opinion about what this answer choice says?" If not, the answer is out already. If so, we can further think "In what the author of passage B actually said, did they commit themselves to an opinion about what this answer choice says?" If not, the answer is out. If so, then as long as those respective opinions are opposite to each other, the answer is correct. So we still have to go back to the passage to determine each person's opinion. It's not guesswork or speculation, but searching in the passage for evidence that they actually have an opinion on the issue discussed in the answer choice.

Robert Carroll

[mollylynch]

Why is A wrong?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi mollylynch!

Since this is an agree/disagree question, we can ask how the authors of both passages would respond to answer choice (A).

That answer choice states that "A significant portion of people’s choices are made freely." From my reading of the passages, both of the authors would disagree with this statement. Both of them seem to think that free will is largely illusory. Neither of them seems to think that a significant portion of people's choices are made freely.

Notice that this question doesn't ask for a statement with which both authors would disagree. If that were how the question were phrased, then (A) would be right. Rather, the question asks for which answer choice they'd disagree with each other over--thus one will agree with it and the other disagree. This is what we have with answer choice (E). The author of passage A would agree with it, while the author of passage B would disagree with it, which confirms that it is a matter over which they disagree.