Q8 - When presented with the evidence

[ohthatpatrick]

This is a Principle-Example question, although it's the trickier kind in which the provided Principle is implicit, not explicit.

Our first job is to tease out what Principle is being used to connect the evidence to the conclusion; then we will find which answer choice best replicates use of a similar Principle.

(In a sense, these questions can be a lot like Match the Reasoning questions)

In this argument, Ellison was doing something wrong and freely admitted to doing so when he was confronted with evidence of his wrongdoing. However, the company acted illegally in obtaining evidence of Ellison's wrongdoing. Thus, the argument concludes that the company can order Ellison to stop his wrongdoings, but it can't punish Ellison.

What principle would take the facts of the case and lead to the conclusion that is reached?

Something like:
If you illegally obtain proof of someone's wrongdoing, you can ask him to stop his wrongdoing but you can't punish him.

We should look for these key components in each answer:
1 - X was doing something bad
2 - Y found out illegally/inappropriately about X's bad deed
3 - Y can pressure X to stop but can't punish X.

(A) There doesn't seem to be a good match for the 2nd part. Long didn't find out about Price through illegal means.

(B) Again, no match for the 2nd part.

(C) Pretty close. We have person X and person Y each doing something bad, but Takashi's bad deed doesn't have anything do with how he found out about Sarah's bad deed. Also, the parents would be doing the punishing, not Takashi, so that's a poor match for the 3rd part as well.

(D) Looks pretty good. Kuttner was doing something bad (1). The conservation officer found out about the bad deed by doing something illegal herself (2). Thus, the conserv. officer can't justifiably punish Kuttner (3).

(E) No match for the 2nd part.

We can double-check any we were iffy on, but (D) is definitely the best match.

(Note: (A) relies on the principle of "one wrong action doesn't justify another wrong action in response". (B) relies on the principle of "you shouldn't bust someone for a misdeed if you have done that misdeed yourself". (C) relies on the principle of "you shouldn't bust someone for a misdeed if you found out about the misdeed from someone else who had committed a misdeed." (E) relies on the principle of "you shouldn't bust someone for a misdeed if you've ever pardoned someone else for the same misdeed")