#13 - Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[Jay]

Hello. Could someone explain Why is it (E)? not (D)?

Since the author thinks the intuition of the injustice of an overly harsh punishment is based on the "First rationale(line 10)", i thought the author was neutral.

[Christen Hammock]

Hey Jay!

The author isn't neutral about harsh penalties for minor offenses; s/he states that there appears to be "something intuitively wrong, or unjust" (lines 30-31) about really harsh punishments for low-harm crimes. This is strong language! The author clearly disapproves of how morally unjust that rationale would be, so it would be wrong to categorize the author's stance as neutral.

Christen

[tetsuya0129]

Hi Powerscore,
I am troubled by the language "moral injustice" on (E); for me, this phrase seems stretched far from the passage in which the author uses words such as "intuitively" and "inherently" wrong and unjust. I was shocked by (E) especially because the question stem mentions "as expressed in the passage,..." so my expectation for the correct choice was stricter in that how a choice could be literally supported by the passage. Could you help comment on where I went wrong in my thinking?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi tetsuya,

It's not much of a stretch, is it? After all, the author implies agreement with the view that there is something "intuitively wrong, or unjust" about punishing a shoplifter with a 20-year prison sentence. Calling a punishment "unjust" means it "lacks justice." So the justice part of answer choice E is clearly covered in the terminology of the passage. And the dictionary definition of the adjectival use of "moral" (from Merriam Webster) is "of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior." Given that the author uses the term "wrong" to describe the disproportionate punishment, this sense of "moral" is also adequately covered in the passage. If you're troubled merely by the fact that the word "moral" was used in the answer but doesn't appear in the passage, just be aware that synonymous language is fair game in reading comprehension answer choices, even when we're looking for something with specific passage support. So long as you've got a true synonym (here, "moral" = notions of "right/wrong"), you should consider the answer a contender.

I hope this helps!

[landphil]

I was worried the answer, E, might be wrong because it says "implicit" when her moral opinion on the subject seems pretty explicit to me: "there appears to be something intuitively wrong, or unjust, about theses punishments."

Would you guys still say this is implicit?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi landphil,

The author doesn't explicitly endorse that view---rather they are describing the retributivist view in that section. They seem to overall be sympathetic to that viewpoint. The author recognizes that the harsh punishments intuitively feel wrong, but the idea that they are not moral is a stronger idea than just the feeling described. The answer choice goes further than the explicit text and moves into implicit views based on the argument. It's the difference between it FEELS wrong and it IS wrong.

You might be tempted to think that feeling wrong and being morally wrong are the same concepts, but there is space between the two concepts. I'll give you an example. I had to care for a toddler with severe food allergies. One day, he was exposed to a new food, and had a severe allergic reaction. The morally right thing to do was to administer the Epipen. However, he was a toddler, and uncomfortable. He screamed at being held down and even more at the pain of the very strong injection. It felt terrible to do it to him---instinctively it FELT wrong. However, it was the morally correct action. A little pain outweighs the risk of death, every time. The instinct about the action and the eventual evaluation of the morality of the action were two different things.

The same logic applies here. Just because the author establishes that something feels wrong doesn't mean that they believe that action IS wrong. It's implicit based on the other statements in the passage.

Hope that helps!

[landphil]

Hi landphil,

The author doesn't explicitly endorse that view---rather they are describing the retributivist view in that section. They seem to overall be sympathetic to that viewpoint. The author recognizes that the harsh punishments intuitively feel wrong, but the idea that they are not moral is a stronger idea than just the feeling described. The answer choice goes further than the explicit text and moves into implicit views based on the argument. It's the difference between it FEELS wrong and it IS wrong.

You might be tempted to think that feeling wrong and being morally wrong are the same concepts, but there is space between the two concepts. I'll give you an example. I had to care for a toddler with severe food allergies. One day, he was exposed to a new food, and had a severe allergic reaction. The morally right thing to do was to administer the Epipen. However, he was a toddler, and uncomfortable. He screamed at being held down and even more at the pain of the very strong injection. It felt terrible to do it to him---instinctively it FELT wrong. However, it was the morally correct action. A little pain outweighs the risk of death, every time. The instinct about the action and the eventual evaluation of the morality of the action were two different things.

The same logic applies here. Just because the author establishes that something feels wrong doesn't mean that they believe that action IS wrong. It's implicit based on the other statements in the passage.

Hope that helps!

Yes that helps a lot, and I think that will help me better understand some other questions too. Thank you!