Chiu: The belief that a person is always morally blameworthy for feeli

Question

Chiu: The belief that a person is always morally blameworthy for feeling certain emotions, such as unjustifiable anger, jealousy, or resentment, is misguided. Individuals are responsible for only what is under their control, and whether one feels such an emotion is not always under one’s control.

Chiu’s conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?

(A) Individuals do not have control over their actions when they feel certain emotions.
(B) If a person is morally blameworthy for something, then that person is responsible for it.
(C) Although a person may sometimes be unjustifiably angry, jealous, or resentful, there are occasions when these emotions are appropriate.
(D) If an emotion is under a person’s control, then that person cannot hold others responsible for it.
(E) The emotions for which a person is most commonly blamed are those that are under that person’s control

Bunuel · Answer

EXPLANATION FROM Fox LSAT

Any time you call someone “wrong” or “mistaken” or “misguided,” you are going to need to back that up with some facts. So the first sentence of Chiu’s argument is her conclusion. If we rearrange Chiu’s argument, we get, “Individuals are responsible for only what is under their control. Certain emotions are not always under one’s control. Therefore, people are not always morally blameworthy for feeling certain emotions.”

The logic here seems pretty tight, but apparently it isn’t, because we’re asked to find a condition that would make the conclusion “follow logically.” In other words, we need to identify a Sufficient Assumption. Here we are looking for something that,  if true , would force the conclusion to be true.

I think the gap that needs to be filled here is a connection between “responsible” and “morally blameworthy.” Are those two the same thing? I am not entirely sure, so I think the argument would be stronger if we made that relationship explicit. My prediction is, “You can only be morally blameworthy for things you are responsible for,” or, “If you aren’t responsible for something, then you can’t be morally blameworthy for it.” Let’s see.

A) Not what we’re looking for. Also “actions” are completely irrelevant to this argument.

B) Yep. This makes the connection we were looking for. I’m damn near positive this will be the answer.

C) It’s not about the “appropriateness” of certain emotions at certain times. It’s about whether you can be “morally blameworthy.”

D) Holding “others” responsible is not relevant to the argument.

E) What? Who cares? The argument was about emotions that are not under someone’s control. So even if the “most commonly blamed” emotions happen to be emotions that are under one’s control, they’re simply not at issue here.

The best answer was B.

Sufficient Assumption questions are like math. I should be careful saying that to people who want to be lawyers, but I mean it in a good way! Eventually, you should be able to predict the answers with startling accuracy.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Chiu: The belief that a person is always morally blameworthy for feeli

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