Strengthen with Sufficient Premise Questions - - Question 16
The desire for praise is the desire to obtain, as a sign that one is good, the favorable opinions of others. But beca...
AnkitMFebruary 24, 2016
Incorrect answer choices
Hi, I eliminated the incorrect answer choices fairly quickly, but was curious if it was with the right mindset, so I don't make a mistake on future questions similar to this. I eliminated B because it stated "no action is worthy..." and this choice had strong language with the word "no". And I eliminated D because it just seemed like it had no bearing on the argument, since it stated "ones own interests." I was curious if doing this is making me prone to making mistakes in the future? Or did I eliminate them for the correct reasons?
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This is a strengthen with sufficient premise question. Let's examine the stimulus first. There is an argument in the stimulus, as follows:
Premise: People merit praise only for those actions motivated by a desire to help others.
Conclusion: One who aids others primarily out of a desire for praise does not deserve praise for that aid.
Do you see how this conclusion does NOT follow logically from the premise? Just because people merit (or deserve) praise only for actions motivated by a desire to help others does not mean that someone who is primarily motivated by a desire for praise does not deserve that praise. This is because you might have multiple motivations for taking an action. So I might be motivated primarily by a desire for praise, but also by a desire to help others.
In order for the conclusion to follow logically, we'd need to add another premise. Answer choice (A) is the premise that is sufficient to guarantee the conclusion. It establishes the dichotomy assumed in the stimulus: that is, it says that if you are motivated by a desire for praise (the favorable opinion of others), then you cannot also be motivated by a desire to help other people.
Answer choice (B) is incorrect not because of the "strong language" you flag. It's incorrect because that statement, if added to the stimulus, would not suffice to support the conclusion in the stimulus. It is not enough.
Your assessment of answer choice (D) is accurate.
Always remember to focus on the stimulus: is it an argument? If so, what is the conclusion? What are the premises? Does the conclusion actually follow from the premises? That's how you want to think through each logical reasoning question.
