Q25 - Jack's aunt gave him her

[willaminic]

Hi, this is question 25, but since someone else edited a wrong 25, so i instead to put 24 here....sorry about that

so for this question, can anyone explain why C is incorrect?

D said" obligatory" but there is nothing about obligatory in the prompt!! I am so confused, help pleaseeee

[ohthatpatrick]

Before we delve into the argument, your question made me think that you're misunderstanding the intended task of this question.

You mentioned that (D) says the word "obligatory", even though nothing in the paragraph said that.

The answer choices here are supposed to be giving us NEW ideas, not restatements of what was already said. So the fact that an answer choice brings up something new should not deter us from liking it.

Any time the question stem says "if true", "if valid", or "if assumed", the test is giving us brand new ideas. We don't have to worry if those ideas bring up new concepts or sound extreme. The test doesn't want us to analyze whether or not the answer choice is true. The test wants us to analyze whether the answer choice would perform the function it's supposed to, according to the question stem.

So let's get to the prompt:

Jack has a dilemma. On one hand, he promised his aunt he'd make her will public, but doing so would lead to George wasting all the money, benefiting no one. On the other hand, he could break his promise and give the money to his mom, benefiting her and others (with no harm).

He chooses the latter.

The question stem wants us to pick a principle that would force Jack to make the choice he did.

What are the competing considerations again, in their simplest form?
Keeping your promise (give to George) vs. Maximizing benefit (give to Mom)

A) is close to helping Jack pick Mom (family) over George (non-family). However, Jack has no "duty" to his Mom. He would just prefer to give her the money.

B) says that "if people would find out about it, then violating a promise is impermissible". Well, we need to force Jack to violate his promise, and this is a rule that would tell someone that he CAN'T violate his promise. So this won't help.

C) is close. We know that the "give to Mom" option benefits some and harms no one. Unfortunately, we were never told that the "give to George" option harms some and benefits no one. We were only told that the "give to George" option benefits no one. We might ask ourselves, "doesn't the fact that 'George would squander the money' mean it would harm someone?" But that's too much of a stretch. Wasting money isn't commonsensically equivalent to 'harming yourself'.

D) is correct because Jack is definitely faced with alternatives (give to George or give to Mom?). And the "give to Mom" option definitely benefits the greatest number of people, since we're told it would benefit her and others whereas the "give to George" option benefits no one. So this choice forces Jack to choose the "give to Mom" option.

E) is tempting because it absolves Jack of the concern about the promise he would or wouldn't be keeping. However, (E) doesn't force Jack to choose the 'give to Mom' option. It makes that option sound possible, but doesn't require him to act that way (as the question stem stipulates).

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have lingering questions.