PrepTest 27, Section 3, Question 12
P: Complying with the new safety regulations is useless. Even if the new regulations had been in effect before last year's laboratory fire, they would not have prevented the fire or the injuries resulting from it because they do not address its underlying causes.
P: Complying with the new safety regulations is useless. Even if the new regulations had been in effect before last year's laboratory fire, they would not have prevented the fire or the injuries resulting from it because they do not address its underlying causes.
Q: But any regulations that can potentially prevent money from being wasted are useful. If obeyed, the new safety regulations will prevent some accidents, and whenever there is an accident here at the laboratory, money is wasted even if no one is injured.
P: Complying with the new safety regulations is useless. Even if the new regulations had been in effect before last year's laboratory fire, they would not have prevented the fire or the injuries resulting from it because they do not address its underlying causes.
Q: But any regulations that can potentially prevent money from being wasted are useful. If obeyed, the new safety regulations will prevent some accidents, and whenever there is an accident here at the laboratory, money is wasted even if no one is injured.
P: Complying with the new safety regulations is useless. Even if the new regulations had been in effect before last year's laboratory fire, they would not have prevented the fire or the injuries resulting from it because they do not address its underlying causes.
Q responds to P's position by
extending the basis for assessing the utility of complying with the new regulations
citing additional evidence that undermines P's assessment of the extent to which the new regulations would have prevented injuries in last year's laboratory fire
giving examples to show that the uselessness of all regulations cannot validly be inferred from the uselessness of one particular set of regulations
showing that P's argument depends on the false assumption that compliance with any regulations that would have prevented last year's fire would be useful
pointing out a crucial distinction, overlooked by P, between potential benefits and actual benefits
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