Daniel: There are certain actions that moral duty obliges us

Powerscore explanation:

Point at Issue. The correct answer choice is (D)

Daniel believes that moral duty requires people to perform some actions, no matter the
consequences, but adds that meeting a basic moral obligation is not necessarily good. Moral
goodness, Daniel asserts, requires the right motivation.

Carrie disagrees, arguing that since people’s motivations are beyond their control, meeting a basic
moral obligation is indeed enough to define an action as good.

The point at issue reflected in this stimulus will be either the disagreement over whether meeting
a moral obligation is sufficient for something to be defined as “good,” or deal with the question of
whether the right motivation is necessary. As with all Point at Issue questions, the correct answer
choice will provide a statement with which one of the speakers would agree, and with which the
other speaker would disagree.

Answer choice (A): This choice provides that an impossible act can never be morally required.
Neither speaker mentions this issue, but they would most likely agree that people can’t be obligated
to do the impossible.

Answer choice (B): While Daniel does say that the right motivation is necessary for an action to be
good, he does not assert that it is sufficient, so there is no way to know whether properly motivated
acts can be “not morally good.” Carrie also does not take a clear stand on this issue, so this cannot be
the point at issue in this example.

Answer choice (C): This choice provides that when an act fulfills a moral obligation, it was
performed specifically to meet that obligation. Neither speaker mentions the issue of whether every
morally obligated act is done with that specific obligation in mind. Since this point is not mentioned
in the dialogue, it is not a point of contention between the speakers, and this cannot be the correct
answer choice.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice, providing that an act with the wrong
motivation cannot be morally good—this is an issue on which both speakers in the dialogue take a
clear stand. Daniel clearly states that an act cannot be good unless it is properly motivated. Carrie
would disagree with this assessment, based on the notion that motivations are beyond our conscious
control: that as long as an act meets a moral obligation, that act can be defined as good.

Answer choice (E): Daniel asserts that the right motivations are required to define something as
morally good, but does not mention whether those motivations are always enough to call something good.
Since Daniel does not take a clear stand on whether duty-based motivation is sufficient to define an act as good,
it cannot be the point at issue in this dialogue.