Which one of the following most accurately describes the attitude of the author of passage B toward the type of argum...

shunhe on August 14, 2020

Hi @christina.c.lin,

Thanks for the question! So we’re being asked here for the attitude of passage B’s author towards the type of argument in passage A. (A) tells us that passage B’s author has sympathy with the premises, but doubts the conclusion (or the feasibility of the policy those premises are used to support). (C) says that passage B’s author rejects both the argument’s conclusion and one or more of the premises on which it’s based. So the difference between these two is that one says she rejects both the premises and the conclusion, whereas the other says that she rejects the conclusion, but not the premises.

So which one of these is correct? Well, what are passage A’s premises? Passage A talks about how brain chemistry can determine actions that might make you think free will and culpability are bunk. Passage B does agree with this when they write “Criminal behavior may be a matter of biology, not choice…” and so it’s not a forceful rejection of the premises (lines 48-49). So (A) is going to be the winner over (B) here; passage B doesn’t reject the premises of passage A, just the conclusion.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.