Ethicist: The penalties for drunk driving are far more severe when the drunk driver accidentally injures people than...

on February 25, 2021

Hello team - I have this same question. I was debating between B and D and ended up picking D, because the drunk driving example did seem like an illustration (which is a premise?!).

Thanks so much!

on January 3, 2022

Bumping this ^^^ I had the same thought process.

Jay on January 24, 2022

Hi everyone,
I think the key here doesn't actually rest on the distinction between premise and illustration, but that the actual content of answer B is wrong. B says "of the claim that the criteria of legal responsibility for an action include but are not the same as those for moral responsibility". But they've told us moral responsibility depends ONLY on intentions. So they haven't shown that legal responsibility includes intentions with the drunk driving point, because that's only talking about things done accidentally.

Overall though, I would say the premise is broader than illustration. An illustration is generally more like an example. They can be used somewhat interchangeably, however. Because of the substantive issue with B, I would say that if D said illustration instead of premise it would still be correct.

Hope this helps, feel free to follow up.