Q16 - Philosopher: Nations are not literally

[dan]

16. (B)
Question Type: Inference
A nation does not have moral rights and responsibilities. But in order to survive, citizens of that nation must believe that the nation does have moral rights and responsibilities. Thus, in a surviving nation, some of its citizens hold false beliefs. Answer (B) expresses the undeniable truth of this statement and is therefore the correct answer.

(A) is not true. The nation can continue to exist if some if its citizens hold the false belief that the nation has moral rights and responsibilities.
(C) is too extreme (never?). Never?
(D) certainly isn’t provable.
(E) is too extreme as well (always?). It’s true that thinking of a nation in metaphorical terms (assigning rights and responsibilities) helps to encourage sacrifices for that nation, but to say that nations should always be thought of in such a way is too much.


#officialexplanation

[tzyc]

I do not understand why these premises
"A nation does not have moral rights and responsibilities. But in order to survive, citizens of that nation must believe that the nation does have moral rights and responsibilities."
lead to this conclusion...
"Thus, in a surviving nation, some of its citizens hold false beliefs."
Why do some of them need to hold false beliefs to survive?
I chose (A) but was not sure about the answer too when I chose it...(I chose it by eliminated the others)

[esultana]

Try to think of a more simple example - maybe that will help.

Premise 1: Anna did not go grocery shopping this week. Therefore, Anna does not have peanut butter and jelly.
Premise 2: But lunch cannot be successful unless her brother John believes she has peanut butter and jelly. Also, to John, nothing else can replace peanut butter and jelly to keep him happy and believing in lunch.

Therefore, in order to keep her brother, John, excited about lunch, John must believe that Anna does have peanut butter and jelly.

Conclusion:
Thus, in order to keep John excited about lunch, John believes in something that is not true.

[stacksdoe]

This might also help: We know we are looking for conclusion, which is indicated by the word "obviously". So whatever out answer we should be able to defend it with the content of the stimuli/argument presented.
(A) This distorts the argument, (Many a times, a wrong answer choice will distort the argument or contradict it). The argument tells us that "nothing else could prompt people to make the sacrifices national citizenship demands" except the "attribution of such rights and responsibilities" to that nation. So contrary to (A) its the "false belief" that "motivates" the citizens. In addition. the argument never talks/mentions or implies anything about "something else".
(C) "never", "moral praise or blame". Too extreme, never is not mentioned in the argument., nor is "praise or blame" . This is completely out of scope, i.e. it says nothing that is reflected in the argument.
(D) "worth", left field again, the arguments says nothing about worthiness/value.
(E) this is rather close, because it is implied in the argument. However, "always" eliminates this answer choices, because the argument states "many of its citizens" not all of them.
the correct answer choice is (B), either by eliminating all the wrong answer choices and/or its the only choice that is supported in the argument. And notice how contrary to (B) it states "many of its citizens" not all them of, and this is reflected in the stimuli third sentence.
I hope this helps