Q14 - We have a moral obligation

[irini101]

I am confused by how to translate (A)’s "performing actions".

I initially refer it to "not to destroy" and choose (A) but turn out to be wrong. Some people says because "performing actions" represents "destroying books"; but I wonder why can’t "performing actions" be interpreted as "not destroying books"? if we interpret this way then (A) seems correct?

Thanks for help!

[demetri.blaisdell]

Thank you for the question. First thing to mention is that there seems to be a typo in the answer key of my version of the test. Question 14 is listed twice. Now, what about the problem?

Principle support questions are in the assumption family. First the core:

Books will contribute to emotional/intellectual enrichment ---> We have an obligation not to destroy them

(D) gives us a general statement that connects the future enriching to not destroying. It is more general than books (what we need) and that is exactly what we want.

You bring up an interesting point with (A). I am not convinced that you can make "devote effort to performing actions" mean "not destroy." Not destroying is not really an action you can perform, especially if you are devoting effort. But on a more basic level, "at least some chance of improving people's lives" is not a good match for almost certainly enrich intellectually and emotionally. Let me know what you think about this.

(B) is out of scope. We have no idea if previous generations preserved the books in question.

(C) is also out of scope. What moral commitment did we make to the present generation?

(E) might look a little tempting at first. But are future generations "someone we know?" Also, we are looking for something that is sufficient to make us not destroy something... not something that is necessary.

Let me know if you have any questions about this.

Demetri