Louis: People' intentions cannot be, on the whole, more bad

Question

Louis: People' intentions cannot be, on the whole, more bad than good. Were we to believe otherwise, we would inevitably cease to trust each other, and no society can survive mutual trust among its members.

The argument is most vulnerablt to which of the following criticism?

A. It fails to rule out the possibility that a true belief can have deleteriuos consequences

B. Mistakenly assumes that if two claims cannot at the same time both be true, then they cannot at the same time both be false

C. It challenges the truth of the claim merely by calling into question the motives of those that profess that they believe it to be true

D. It assumes without warrant that in any situation with two possible outcomes, the most negative one wil inevitably occur

E. It provides no reason to believe that a statement that is true of a given group of individuals is also true of any other group of individuals

bewakoof · Answer

IMHO D??

giddi77 · Answer

I think it is B.

smjohn · Answer

I would go for D.
A - true beliefs are out of scope
B - Only one claim is being made. That there is more bad than good.
C- Motives out of scope
D- she assumes that if society loses trust it will not survive. There are 2 results. Survival, or no-survival. She opts for no-survival.
E- No mention of different groups.

allabout · Answer

I choose C.

plsubbu · Answer

Although I don't quite like the word "motive" but I think C is the best choice. This is how I prephrased my answer - People's intensions can be good / bad. If can't be bad because all these bad things happen.

5elements · Answer

"D" for me, though D seem to be generalizing the statement's point too much. Picking D because it seems to be the best of the lot.

hkm_gmat · Answer

Imo - should be E ! a group of friends may trust each other , but this trust may not extend to strangers. (Though I very much feel people most people are very nice like the ones at GMATCLUB :-D

) E. It provides no reason to believe that a statement that is true of a given group of individuals is also true of any other group of individuals OA / OE / Source Please ?

rlevochkin · Answer

OA is A.

eskay05 · Answer

Can someone pls explain that? A?? I picked D

andy_gr8 · Answer

I would go for E..

D is just the opposite..It says that in any situation with 2 outcomes, most negative one would occur... But the premises say that tha author is banking on the postive one..Thats why he said that no society can survive...
Whats the OA?

ArashKhurana · Answer

OA is A?????

Can someone pls explain how....this one is a total screwball!!

todakdw · Answer

Here's how I think it is A: The argument is that one needs to trust people's intention because it is more likely to be good than bad. If not,society would crumble. However, it ignores the possibility that even a "truly held belief" can have bad consequences (eg: the Nazis held the super race theory as a true belief...they believed it passionately and whole heartedly) and which will result in mistrust. Hence, one must examine the intent objectively and not agree to it based on trust in innate human goodness.

Louis: People' intentions cannot be, on the whole, more bad

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