PrepTest 123, Section 3, Question 23
By Brandon Beaver | Published October 29, 2024
Type: Flaw
Difficulty:
Explanations
Selfish motives doesn’t mean a person’s promise is unreliable. I can be selfishly motivated to sell you my car. That doesn’t mean everything I say about the car is a lie. I might be lying, but what I say isn’t necessarily unreliable just because I have a motive to sell my car.
A
No, the argument presumes that if a person’s promise is selfishly motivated. We know nothing if it isn’t.
B
The conclusion says “unreliable,” not “definitively false.”
C
No, the effect of making promises is probably caused by the desire to be elected.
D
Perfect. This doesn’t go too far like B but expresses essentially the same idea: Self-interest does not necessarily make a promise unreliable.
E
This loses sight of the conclusion. The conclusion is about the promise being unreliable, not the worthiness of the politician.
Passage
Political candidates' speeches are loaded with promises and with expressions of good intention, but one must not forget that the politicians' purpose in giving these speeches is to get themselves elected. Clearly, then, these speeches are selfishly motivated and the promises made in them are unreliable.
Question 23
Which one of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the argument above?
The argument presumes, without providing justification, that if a person's promise is not selfishly motivated then that promise is reliable.
The argument presumes, without providing justification, that promises made for selfish reasons are never kept.
The argument confuses the effect of an action with its cause.
The argument overlooks the fact that a promise need not be unreliable just because the person who made it had an ulterior motive for doing so.
The argument overlooks the fact that a candidate who makes promises for selfish reasons may nonetheless be worthy of the office for which he or she is running.