LNAT Practice Passage 11: Confucius and the Well-Ordered State
Read the passage below and answer the four LNAT-style multiple-choice questions. Full answers and explanations follow.
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Confucius and the Well-Ordered State
The Analects offers no single chapter in which Confucius lays out a complete theory of government. Instead, the reader encounters short exchanges: a ruler asks how people should be governed, a governor boasts of an upright subject, a disciple asks what should be done first. Across centuries these fragments have been copied, quoted and treated as political wisdom. Their durability is interesting, but it does not settle whether the arguments work. Three of the best-known claims about government and duty can be tested on their own terms.
Virtue Before Punishment
Confucius contrasts government by regulations and punishments with government by virtue and ritual. Under the first, people merely evade penalties; under the second, they acquire shame and become good. There is an important warning here: frightened obedience is not moral character. But why must law and example be rivals? A ruler may behave impeccably while still needing courts for citizens who remain unimpressed. Indeed, the claim quietly depends on the transformation it promises. If virtuous government works only when subjects respond to virtue, what produces that response among the shameless? More virtue, apparently. A school could abolish its rules on the ground that a sufficiently admirable head teacher would inspire every pupil to return library books. The first missing book would not refute the value of example; it would expose the folly of treating example as enforcement.
Uprightness in the Sheepfold
The Governor of She boasts of an upright man who testified after his father stole a sheep. Confucius replies that upright people in his own community behave differently: fathers conceal their sons' misconduct and sons conceal their fathers', and "uprightness is to be found in this". Affection may explain reluctance to inform on a parent; it may even justify mercy when punishment is decided. Neither turns concealment into uprightness. The sheep had an owner, a detail remarkably easy to lose while admiring the intimacy of the thief's family. Suppose the governor's clerk stole a farmer's winter grain and the clerk's son hid the account book. Would the farmer be expected to applaud this flourishing domestic loyalty while his children went hungry? Confucius has taken one genuine moral demand, special concern for parents, and allowed it to rename conduct that frustrates another, justice to the victim. Calling the concealment upright does not resolve the conflict; it gives the preferred side possession of the flattering word.
Rectifying Names
Asked what he would do first in government, Confucius answers that he would "rectify names". Unless names are correct, he argues, speech will not accord with truth; affairs will fail; ritual, music and punishments will fall into disorder; and people will not know how to act. Elsewhere the formula appears in examples such as the ruler being a ruler, the father a father and the son a son. Clear language certainly helps administration. A tax collector who calls a payment voluntary while imposing it by force deserves correction. The difficulty begins when rectifying names means making people conform to inherited roles. Who decides what a father or ruler must be before declaring a particular father or ruler defective? If the answer is the established rites, the argument says that roles should follow tradition because tradition defines the roles. One might as usefully repair a leaking palace by announcing that a true roof keeps out rain and therefore the dripping object overhead is not really a roof. The vocabulary has been put in order, while the occupants remain wet.
Questions
Question 1
What comes closest to the writer's main argument under the heading "Virtue Before Punishment"?
- ALaws can make people morally good if their penalties are severe enough.
- BGovernment by virtue can succeed only among people who are already virtuous.
- CMoral example may be valuable without being a substitute for legal enforcement.
- DRules are more dependable in schools than they are in government.
Question 2
Which of the following best describes the difference between the first and second criticisms?
- AThe first challenges the replacement of enforcement; the second challenges the preference for family loyalty over justice.
- BThe first concerns a ruler's private character, whereas the second concerns a father's legal guilt.
- CThe first examines the conduct of a population, whereas the second uses the conduct of one family.
- DThe first rejects ritual as ineffective, whereas the second demands that theft receive a harsher punishment.
Question 3
What does the writer mean by saying that Confucius gives his preferred side "possession of the flattering word"?
- AConfucius assumes that most people will admire loyalty to parents more than justice to strangers.
- BConfucius uses an appealing story to distract attention from the owner of the sheep.
- CWords such as "uprightness" have no meaning outside the family relationships in which they are used.
- DDescribing concealment as upright treats the disputed moral judgement as though it were already settled.
Question 4
What does the writer suggest is the main flaw in the doctrine of rectifying names?
- AIt assumes that correcting vocabulary will automatically make people perform their social roles properly.
- BIt uses inherited roles to justify tradition while allowing tradition to define those roles.
- CIt treats the duties of rulers, fathers and sons as morally identical.
- DIt overlooks the usefulness of precise language in administration.
Answers & explanations
Question 1: show answer and explanation
Correct answer: C.
Moral example may be valuable without being a substitute for legal enforcement.
The criticism is directed at making virtue and law rivals. An exemplary ruler may influence citizens while still requiring courts and enforceable rules. Trap: Option D accurately recalls the example's setting but mistakes the content of the analogy for its argumentative purpose.
- A The writer does not claim that punishment creates morality. He accepts Confucius's warning that frightened obedience is not the same as moral character.
- B The writer asks how virtue will influence the shameless, but does not conclude that moral example can affect only people who are already good.
- C The criticism is directed at making virtue and law rivals. An exemplary ruler may influence citizens while still requiring courts and enforceable rules.
- D The school is an analogy illustrating why admirable leadership cannot perform the work of enforcement. The passage does not compare the reliability of school and government rules.
Question 2: show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A.
The first challenges the replacement of enforcement; the second challenges the preference for family loyalty over justice.
The first section argues that moral example cannot simply replace enforcement. The second argues that a genuine duty to one's family has been allowed to override justice to the victim without resolving the conflict. Trap: Option C is true of the examples, but the question asks how the criticisms differ, not how many people appear in each case.
- A The first section argues that moral example cannot simply replace enforcement. The second argues that a genuine duty to one's family has been allowed to override justice to the victim without resolving the conflict.
- B Confucius is discussing virtue as a method of government, not merely the ruler's private character. The second section also concerns the son's concealment and the victim's claim, not just the father's guilt.
- C This describes a difference in the scale of the examples, but not the different logical objections the writer makes.
- D The writer does not reject ritual altogether or argue that the father deserves an especially severe punishment.
Question 3: show answer and explanation
Correct answer: D.
Describing concealment as upright treats the disputed moral judgement as though it were already settled.
By assigning the approving term "upright" to concealment, Confucius presents his preferred resolution of the conflict as though the word itself had established it.
- A The writer does not make a prediction about what most people admire. The point concerns how Confucius labels the conduct.
- B The sheep's owner is neglected in Confucius's judgement, but the phrase refers specifically to the use of "uprightness", not to the narrative appeal of the example.
- C The writer assumes that uprightness can be applied beyond family relationships, which is why calling concealment upright requires justification.
- D By assigning the approving term "upright" to concealment, Confucius presents his preferred resolution of the conflict as though the word itself had established it.
Question 4: show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B.
It uses inherited roles to justify tradition while allowing tradition to define those roles.
If inherited rites determine what a proper ruler or father is, and people are then told to follow those rites because their roles require it, the reasoning moves in a circle. Trap: Option A identifies a problem suggested by the comic analogy, but B captures the circular reasoning developed immediately before it.
- A The leaking-roof example makes this tempting, but the writer's more precise objection concerns the standard used to decide whether someone is fulfilling a role.
- B If inherited rites determine what a proper ruler or father is, and people are then told to follow those rites because their roles require it, the reasoning moves in a circle.
- C The doctrine places different demands on different roles. The writer does not accuse it of making their duties identical.
- D The passage expressly accepts that clear terminology assists administration and gives the misleading description of a compulsory tax as an example.