Bunuel
Competition Mode Question
The notion that one might be justified in behaving irrationally in the service of a sufficiently worthy end is incoherent. For if such action is justified, then one would be behaving rationally, not irrationally.
Which one of the following arguments is most similar in its reasoning to the argument above?
(A) A representative of the law, such as a judge or a police officer, ought not to commit crimes. For if representatives of the law commit crimes, they will be ineffective in preventing crime.
(B) One cannot intend to spill a glass of water accidentally. Spilling it accidentally means that the act will not have been done intentionally.
(C) One cannot live the good life and be unhappy. If one’s own neighbors see that one is unhappy, then they will see that one is not living the good life.
(D) Doctors cannot perform self-diagnosis, for they cannot objectively evaluate their own symptoms, and thus will be practicing poor medicine.
(E) One ought not to have both a cat and a goldfish. The goldfish is the natural prey of the cat, so it is unethical to place it at the cat’s disposal.
Must be justified in behaving irrationally is incoherent, why? Because if it's justified, then the behavior should have been rational instead of irrational.
(A) A representative of the law, such as a judge or a police officer, ought not to commit crimes. For if representatives of the law commit crimes, they will be ineffective in preventing crime.
Representative => Shouldn't commit crimesIf they do commit crimes => They will be ineffective in preventing crimes.Rather than questioning the first statement, these seems to introduce a third idea in the second statement, hence Eliminate(B) One cannot intend to spill a glass of water accidentally. Spilling it accidentally means that the act will not have been done intentionally.
Intend to spill => AccidentallyIf accidental => Not intentionalSeems to go inline with the argument, so let's keep it(C) One cannot live the good life and be unhappy. If one’s own neighbors see that one is unhappy, then they will see that one is not living the good life.
Cannot live good and unhappy and then why do we care about how neighbors see someone in the next statement? Seems irrelevant, Eliminate(D) Doctors cannot perform self-diagnosis, for they cannot objectively evaluate their own symptoms, and thus will be practicing poor medicine.
Cannot evaluate symptoms => Poor medicine => No self-diagnosis, this structuring is completely different to what's being mentioned in the argument, Eliminate(E) One ought not to have both a cat and a goldfish. The goldfish is the natural prey of the cat, so it is unethical to place it at the cat’s disposal.
Wow! Two things are being discussed here cat and goldfish, that in itself seems far fetched, and then we see comparison b/w them. Irrelevant, EliminateIMO: B