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Hovkial
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One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows 29 Oct 2019, 16:08
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75% (hard)

Question Stats:

55% (02:22) correct 45% (02:16) wrong based on 386 sessions

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One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows contempt for that person or if one believes it might bring significant harm to that person.

The principle stated above, if valid, most helps to justify the reasoning in which one of the following arguments?

(A) I should not have played that practical joke on you yesterday. Even if it was not contemptuous, I should have realized that it would bring significant harm to someone.

(B) I have no reason to think that the practical joke I want to play would harm anyone. So, since the joke would show no contempt for the person the joke is played on, it would not be wrong for me to play it.

(C) Because of the circumstances, it would be wrong for me to play the practical joke I had intended to play on you. Even though it would not show contempt for anyone, it could easily bring you significant harm.

(D) It would have been wrong for me to play the practical joke that I had intended to play on you. Even though I did not have reason to think that it would significantly harm anyone, I did think that it would show contempt for someone.

(E) Someone was harmed as a result of my practical joke. Thus, even though it did not show contempt for the person I played the joke on, I should not have played it.
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One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows 01 Nov 2019, 02:18
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Hovkial
One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows contempt for that person or if one believes it might bring significant harm to that person.

The principle stated above, if valid, most helps to justify the reasoning in which one of the following arguments?

(A) I should not have played that practical joke on you yesterday. Even if it was not contemptuous, I should have realized that it would bring significant harm to someone.

(B) I have no reason to think that the practical joke I want to play would harm anyone. So, since the joke would show no contempt for the person the joke is played on, it would not be wrong for me to play it.

(C) Because of the circumstances, it would be wrong for me to play the practical joke I had intended to play on you. Even though it would not show contempt for anyone, it could easily bring you significant harm.

(D) It would have been wrong for me to play the practical joke that I had intended to play on you. Even though I did not have reason to think that it would significantly harm anyone, I did think that it would show contempt for someone.

(E) Someone was harmed as a result of my practical joke. Thus, even though it did not show contempt for the person I played the joke on, I should not have played it.
Show more

Hi ,

I always get bogged down by such questions. Can anybody guide me how to tackle such questions. I was able to narrow down to B and C but chose B.
Please explain in detail the process to decipher such questions.
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One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows 01 Nov 2019, 03:21
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Please explain. I selected D but it was wrong
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One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows 01 Nov 2019, 18:50
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arvind910619
Hovkial
One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows contempt for that person or if one believes it might bring significant harm to that person.

The principle stated above, if valid, most helps to justify the reasoning in which one of the following arguments?

(A) I should not have played that practical joke on you yesterday. Even if it was not contemptuous, I should have realized that it would bring significant harm to someone.

(B) I have no reason to think that the practical joke I want to play would harm anyone. So, since the joke would show no contempt for the person the joke is played on, it would not be wrong for me to play it.

(C) Because of the circumstances, it would be wrong for me to play the practical joke I had intended to play on you. Even though it would not show contempt for anyone, it could easily bring you significant harm.

(D) It would have been wrong for me to play the practical joke that I had intended to play on you. Even though I did not have reason to think that it would significantly harm anyone, I did think that it would show contempt for someone.

(E) Someone was harmed as a result of my practical joke. Thus, even though it did not show contempt for the person I played the joke on, I should not have played it.

Hi ,

I always get bogged down by such questions. Can anybody guide me how to tackle such questions. I was able to narrow down to B and C but chose B.
Please explain in detail the process to decipher such questions.
Show more


Hello,
While I do not have a generic approach for such questions, I can help you out with this one.
I eliminated A, D and E because the decision to play the joke would only be considered 'bad' ,so to say, only if, either the joke would be indicative of disrespect towards the subject or the joke would harm the subject.

Although A, D and E mention the words 'contempt' and 'harm', it is clear that those emotions are not linked to the subject of the joke. (A-> harm to someone, D-> contempt for someone, E-> Someone was harmed).

As for B, I did not choose it because of a faulty conclusion. The first statement says:
I have no reason to think that the practical joke I want to play would harm anyone.
-> Okay, not harming anyone = Anyone can be the subject of my joke based on factor 1

However, the second statement
So, since the joke would show no contempt for the person the joke is played on, it would not be wrong for me to play it.

starts with a 'so, since' meaning you would expect statement 2 to be a logical conclusion of statement 1. But as you can clearly see, that is not the case-
Anyone can be the subject of my joke based on factor 1 <> Joke would be okay based on factor 2, hence I should play it

Hope this helps!
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One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows 06 Feb 2020, 00:38
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Please clarify the options. And please the strategy to approach such questions.GMATNinja
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One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows 06 Aug 2023, 07:40
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arvind910619
Hovkial
One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows contempt for that person or if one believes it might bring significant harm to that person.

The principle stated above, if valid, most helps to justify the reasoning in which one of the following arguments?

(A) I should not have played that practical joke on you yesterday. Even if it was not contemptuous, I should have realized that it would bring significant harm to someone.

(B) I have no reason to think that the practical joke I want to play would harm anyone. So, since the joke would show no contempt for the person the joke is played on, it would not be wrong for me to play it.

(C) Because of the circumstances, it would be wrong for me to play the practical joke I had intended to play on you. Even though it would not show contempt for anyone, it could easily bring you significant harm.

(D) It would have been wrong for me to play the practical joke that I had intended to play on you. Even though I did not have reason to think that it would significantly harm anyone, I did think that it would show contempt for someone.

(E) Someone was harmed as a result of my practical joke. Thus, even though it did not show contempt for the person I played the joke on, I should not have played it.

Hi ,

I always get bogged down by such questions. Can anybody guide me how to tackle such questions. I was able to narrow down to B and C but chose B.
Please explain in detail the process to decipher such questions.
Show more

You confused sufficiency with requirement. The argument doesn't say that not showing content for the person and not knowing about the potential harm the prank may cause makes someone not faulty. The argument says that knowing about the potential harm that the practical may cause or showing content makes someone faulty.

Showing Content or Knowing About The Harming Risks ----> Faulty. In plain English, the existence of any stated premises is sufficient to know you are faulty.

If you want to negate such a statement, you get:

Not faulty ----> Not Showing Content and Not Knowing About The Harming Risks. In plain English, if you are not faulty, I know you didn't trigger any of the stated premises.

Not Showing Content and Not Knowing About the Harming Risks are REQUIREMENTS for not being judged faulty, but they are not SUFFICIENT on their own (according to the argument).
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