Q26 - It is common to respond

[clarafok]

hello,

could someone please explain why D is the correct answer instead of A?

thanks in advance!

[giladedelman]

Thanks for posting!

So, the original argument concludes that it's irrational to respond to someone's behavioral advice by pointing out that person's own behavior. (In other words, if you tell me I shouldn't smoke, it's irrational for me to reply, But you smoke!) Why is it irrational? According to the argument, because whether someone listens to his own advice is irrelevant to whether we should follow that advice.

We're looking for the argument that most closely matches this logic.

(D) is correct because it matches both the premise and the conclusion. The claim that "people's actions have no effect on the strength of their arguments" is basically the same as our original premise, and the conclusion that one shouldn't dismiss the philosopher's claim by pointing to the philosopher's actions matches up with our original conclusion.

(A) is tempting, because it concludes that it's irrational for other countries to point to our country's behavior. However, if we look at the premise, we see this is not a good match. The original argument is based on the premise that one's actions have no bearing on the quality of one's advice; here, the premise is simply that we could make the same argument about the other countries that they make about us. But do actions effect the quality of the argument? This answer choice doesn't say.

(B) is incorrect because here, the neighbor does heed his own advice, and the speaker chooses not to follow it based on its results.

(C) is pretty far out there. The issue here is whether the response is rational, not whether it can reduce damage to one's reputation.

(E) is also way off. The original argument is about neither condemnation nor about "wrongs committed by everybody."

Does that clear this one up for you?