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

SamA on March 26, 2020

Hello @meganw,

The difference here is who the contempt is for. Note the specific wording of our principle: "One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows contempt for that person..."

Who is "that person?" It is the victim of the practical joke. Answer choice D simply says "contempt for someone," not specifically for the intended victim of the prank. So, we cannot be totally certain that it would have been wrong to play this practical joke.

Remember that on justification questions, we want to guarantee that the conclusion follows logically. D leaves room for uncertainty.

Jimmywantstogotolawschool on September 9, 2020

Can someone explain why C is correct and B not? Thanks

Emil-Kunkin on October 21, 2023

The passage gives us two reasons we are not allowed to play a prank: contempt or harming the pranked. C tells us that the prank would cause harm, so it correctly concluded we shouldn't do it.

B tells us that we are justified in pulling a prank. However the passage never tells us when a prank is justified, only when it is not justified.

KiaBrodersen on January 10 at 08:35PM

Hi,

I'm a bit confused by Answer choice D as well. I've included it and the explanation for why it is incorrect. It states:

(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.

This appears to conclude that a practical joke shouldn't be played because it shows contempt. However, be careful—the stimulus states that the sufficient condition is that the joke would show contempt for the person being pranked. This answer only establishes that it would show contempt "for someone," so it fails to meet that mark.

However Answer choice C states:

(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.

I'm confused because this answer choice also fails to meet the mark that the explanation for Answer choice D laid out. It says "it would not show contempt for anyone" which is actually a reason why I eliminated it. The stimulus lays out that, "One should not play a practical joke on someone if it shows contempt for that person" - 'that person' being the one being pranked. Am I correct in saying that then the explanation for Answer choice D would not be a good way to eliminate it? Can this be explained or can someone provide perhaps a better way to spot why D is incorrect?

Thank you.

Emil-Kunkin on January 11 at 01:11AM

Remember there are two ways to determine we should not pull a prank: either it shows contempt for the victim, or it risks injury to the victim. C, like D, passes on the contempt element. However C fails the harm element. The explanation for why d is wrong is correct.

KiaBrodersen on January 11 at 01:33PM

Ohh I see now, thank you Emil!