CSAT Solved Papers/ 2022/Q63
2022 CSAT — Q63
Passage
“The social order is a sacred right which is the basis of all other rights. Nevertheless, this right does not come from nature, and must therefore be founded on conventions.”
With reference to the above passage, which of the following statements is/are correct?
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Conventions are the sources of rights of man.
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Rights of man can be exercised only when there is a social order.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Thinking pathway
Locate. Two sentences carry the whole load: “The social order is a sacred right which is the basis of all other rights” and “this right does not come from nature, and must therefore be founded on conventions.” Read them as a chain: conventions found the social order; the social order is the basis of all other rights.
Test (find-the-line-then-match + faithful chaining). Statement 2 — “rights can be exercised only when there is a social order.” If the social order is “the basis of all other rights,” then every other right presupposes it; without the social order, the rights it grounds cannot stand. Direct fit. VALID. Statement 1 — “conventions are the sources of rights of man.” The social order, which grounds all rights, “must be founded on conventions.” Chaining: conventions → social order → all rights. So conventions are the ultimate source of the rights of man. This is a transitive restatement of the passage’s own two links, not a new mechanism. VALID — though this rests on a two-step chain rather than a single quotable line, which is the harder of the two to trust.
Eliminate by anatomy. (a) drops the directly-stated Statement 2; (b) drops the chain-justified Statement 1; (d) drops both. Each under-counts. The transferable rule: when a passage states A grounds B and B grounds C, “A is the source of C” is a faithful inference, not an overreach — provided no new causal channel is introduced. Both hold. Key: (c).
Evidence in the text
“The social order is a sacred right which is the basis of all other rights. Nevertheless, this right does not come from nature, and must therefore be founded on conventions.” Statement 2 — “the basis of all other rights” means every other right rests on the social order, so rights are exercised only where a social order exists → VALID (direct). Statement 1 — the social order (the basis of all rights) “must… be founded on conventions”; chaining conventions → social order → all rights makes conventions the ultimate source of the rights of man → VALID (a transitive but faithful chain, no added mechanism). Both → (c). Flagged weak_anchor: St.1 rests on a two-step chain, not one line.
Worked rationale
The passage’s logic: the social order is the basis of all other rights, and the social order is itself founded on conventions (not nature).
- Statement 2 — since social order is the basis of all other rights, those rights are exercisable only where the social order exists. Valid (direct).
- Statement 1 — conventions found the social order, which grounds all rights; so conventions are the source of the rights of man. Valid (transitive, faithful to the two stated links).
Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2.
Why the other options miss
- A half right, half wrong: keeps the chain-justified Statement 1 but drops Statement 2, which is the more direct of the two (“basis of all other rights” → exercised only with social order).
- B half right, half wrong: keeps the direct Statement 2 but drops Statement 1, treating the conventions→order→rights chain as if it broke at the first link.
- D reads the passage as demanding more than it does: rejects both, the literalist error of refusing a faithful two-step chain and a direct restatement.
Specialist insight
This short, dense passage is a chaining test. Statement 2 is one link (“basis of all other rights” → rights need the order). Statement 1 is two links chained (“founded on conventions” + “basis of all rights” → conventions source the rights). The discipline that keeps the chain honest is checking that no new cause is smuggled in: the passage itself states both links and their direction, so composing them adds no new causal channel — it merely follows the passage’s own arrows. Statement 1 leans on a composed two-step chain rather than a single quotable line, which makes it the harder of the two to trust — but because the chain only follows the passage’s own arrows (conventions found the social order; the social order grounds all rights), adding no new link, it holds alongside the directly-stated Statement 2. (c).
"Social order grounds all rights" gives Statement 2 directly, and "social order is founded on conventions" chains to make conventions the source (Statement 1) — both hold, so (c).