Moralist: Immoral actions are those that harm other people. But since

Question

Moralist: Immoral actions are those that harm other people. But since such actions eventually harm those who perform them, those who act immorally do so only through ignorance of some of their actions’ consequences rather than through a character defect.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the moralist’s argument?

(A) People ignorant of their actions’ consequences cannot be held morally responsible for those consequences.

(B) An action harms those who perform it only if it also eventually harms others.

(C) Only someone with a character defect would knowingly perform actions that eventually harm others.

(D) Those who, in acting immorally, eventually harm themselves do not intend that harm.

(E) None of those who knowingly harm themselves lack character defects.

Bunuel · Answer

EXPLANATION FROM Fox LSAT

How does this guy know I would never intentionally harm myself? Even if his facts are valid (immoral actions are those that harm other people; these actions eventually harm oneself) that does not justify his conclusion that anybody that does an immoral act must be ignorant of the harm that results. Maybe I  know  I’m only hurting myself every time I sneak behind the church for a cigarette. Maybe a crackhead knows he's hurting himself every time he steals a car stereo to pay for crack. Maybe he knows it, and just doesn't give a ****.

We’re asked to identify a Necessary Assumption, and I’m pretty sure we’ve already nailed it. The moralist has assumed that I would never intentionally harm myself. If that’s not true—if it is possible that I  would  intentionally harm myself—then how could the moralist’s argument possibly make sense?

A) No, the argument is simply not about holding people “morally responsible.”

B) This isn’t what we’re looking for. It has some of the right words, but they’re arranged in a useless order.

C) I really think the character defect thing is just a red herring. We need an answer that says, as clearly as possible, “Nobody would intentionally harm themselves.” This isn’t it.

D) There we go. This one basically says, “Nobody would intentionally harm themselves.” If this answer is untrue, then it’s possible that I just don’t give a **** if I’m harming myself, which would ruin the moralist’s argument. That means this statement is “necessary” to the argument.

E) Nope, D was exactly what we were looking for, and this isn’t. This is a question where it’s really not worth analyzing the incorrect answer choices. You either affirmatively identify the correct answer (probably before even looking at the answer choices) or you’re going to struggle. Sorry, but there’s no way around that. Practice, and you’ll get there.

The answer is D.

babataer1 · Answer

Premise: Immoral actions are those that harm other people ... such actions eventually harm those who perform them

Conclusion: those who act immorally do so only through  ignorance of some  of their actions’ consequences  rather than through a character defect

So rephrasing this would mean:
Those who act immorally are ignorant of the consequences, because they eventually also harm themselves.
Assumption is: when someone harms themselves they do not intend to or know that they would be harming themselves.

(A) People ignorant of their actions’ consequences cannot be held morally responsible for those consequences 
--> No speak of responsibility whatsoever in the question, so irrelevant.

(B) An action harms those who perform it  only  if it also eventually harms others.  --> Wrong. An action harms those who perform it (eventually)  AND  it harms others.

(C) Only someone with a character defect would knowingly perform actions that eventually harm others.  --> the opposite, it clearly says in the conclusion above, that people do so ignorantly and not just out of a character defect.

(D) Those who, in acting immorally, eventually harm themselves do not intend that harm.  --> this is the assumption, which is the basis for the conclusion. Since there could be people which intend to also harm themselves, but in the original argument this is not considered, but rather assumed not to be the case.--> D is correct.

(E)  None  of those who knowingly harm themselves  lack  character defects.  --> wrong. The text above says  rather , but does not exclude character defects.

Hope this helps!

gmat700s · Answer

Hello Experts,
 KarishmaB 
Can you please clarify choices C, D, and E in detail?

Also in this argument there is no mention of what leads to a character defect.I only know what does not lead to a character defect..

Moralist: Immoral actions are those that harm other people. But since such actions eventually harm those who perform them, those who act immorally do so only through ignorance of some of their actions’ consequences rather than through a character defect.

(C) Only someone with a character defect would knowingly perform actions that eventually harm others.
--again this one is a bit strong --so I guess i can eliminate this ---as there may be other type of people (about whom information is not given ) who do not have character defects but knowingly harm others

(D) Those who, in acting immorally, eventually harm themselves do not intend that harm.
---But if a person knowingly harm others(commit a crime) --and get harm themself by court for example)---he/she does intend harm

(E) None of those who knowingly harm themselves lack character defects.
--This one is saying that none lack character defect ---means that the person who knowingly harms others has a character defect----but again this one is too strong..as I might not have character defect but i can harm others knowingly.

KarishmaB · Answer

Context: 
Immoral actions are those that harm others.

Premise: 
But eventually they harm the perpetrator.

Conclusion: 
Hence, people do immoral actions out of ignorance, not out of character defect.

Note the gap in logic here. Premises only tell us that immoral actions harm the people performing them. We are concluding from that people do immoral actions out of ignorance. So we are assuming that people do not knowingly commit actions that harm them. That people will not intentionally harm themselves.

(A) People ignorant of their actions’ consequences cannot be held morally responsible for those consequences.
 
The argument doesn't say whether people should be held responsible for their actions or not. It just focuses on why people commit immoral actions.

(B) An action harms those who perform it only if it also eventually harms others.
 
Not an assumption. We are given that actions that harm others eventually harm the people who commit them. They have tried to twist these words to confuse us with some non-sensical logic.

(C) Only someone with a character defect would knowingly perform actions that eventually harm others.
 
Why people perform actions that harm  others  is not discussed. We are discussing that people will not perform actions that harm themselves.

(D) Those who, in acting immorally, eventually harm themselves do not intend that harm.
 
Correct. We are assuming that people do not intentionally harm themselves. Our conclusion depends on it.

(E) None of those who knowingly harm themselves lack character defects.
 
We are assuming that people do not harm themselves knowingly. 
We are not assuming anything about people who knowingly harm themselves. As per our argument, people do not harm themselves knowingly. 
"Character defects" is the reason usually allocated to people who perform immoral actions. But the real reason is ignorance, claims the argument. So who has character defects and who doesn't? That is out of scope for us.

Answer (D)

VerbalBot · Answer

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Moralist: Immoral actions are those that harm other people. But since

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