CSAT Solved Papers/ 2023/Q73
2023 CSAT — Q73
Passage
“The last end of the state is not to dominate men, nor to restrain them by fear; rather it is so to free each man from fear that he may live and act with full security and without injury to himself or his neighbour. The end of the state, I repeat, is not to make rational beings into brute beasts and machines. It is to enable their bodies and their minds to function safely. It is to lead men to live by, and to exercise, a free reason; that they may not waste their strength in hatred, anger and guile, nor act unfairly toward one another.”
Based on the above passage, which one of the following terms best expresses the ultimate goal of the state?
Thinking pathway
Locate. This is a locate-the-detail question: scan for the exact phrase the stem names — here, the state’s “ultimate goal” — and read its qualifier. The passage gives it verbatim: “The last end of the state is not to dominate men, nor to restrain them by fear; rather it is so to free each man from fear that he may live and act with full security… It is to lead men to live by, and to exercise, a free reason.” The named ultimate end is to free men — liberty.
Test (qualifier-match + means-vs-end). The passage lists several goods — security, bodily and mental functioning, not wasting strength in hatred — but it subordinates them all to freeing each man to live and act freely and reason freely. So distinguish the end from the means: liberty is the “last end”; safety and healthy functioning are in service of it. (d) “liberty” matches the “last end… free each man… exercise a free reason.” (a) personal safety, (b) health of body and mind, and (c) communal harmony are the conditions/means the passage names toward that freedom, not the ultimate goal itself.
Eliminate by anatomy. (a) offers a supporting detail as if it were the main point — “live and act with full security” is a means to freedom, not the last end; (b) offers a supporting detail as if it were the main point — “enable their bodies and their minds to function safely” is again instrumental; (c) is a claim the passage never makes, half right and half wrong — “not act unfairly toward one another” gestures at harmony, but the passage frames even that under exercising free reason. The transferable rule on locate-the-detail questions for a “ultimate goal / last end” stem: pick the term the passage labels as the end, not the supporting goods it lists on the way. Key: (d).
Evidence in the text
“The last end of the state is not to dominate men, nor to restrain them by fear; rather it is so to free each man from fear that he may live and act with full security… It is to lead men to live by, and to exercise, a free reason.” The passage names the state’s “last end” (ultimate goal) as freeing each man — to live and act freely and exercise a free reason — i.e. LIBERTY. Personal safety, health of body/mind, and harmony are stated as means/intermediate ends in service of that freedom, not the ultimate goal → (d).
Worked rationale
The passage explicitly states the state’s “last end”: to free each man from fear so he may live and act with full security, and “to lead men to live by, and to exercise, a free reason.” Security, safe bodily and mental functioning, and not acting unfairly are described as what freedom enables, not as the end itself.
(d) Liberty names that ultimate goal — freeing men to live and reason freely. (a) safety, (b) health of body and mind, and (c) communal harmony are the instrumental goods the passage lists in service of that freedom.
Answer: (d).
Why the other options miss
- A a detail, not the main idea: “live and act with full security” is a condition the state secures so that men may be free; the passage treats it as a means, not the last end.
- B a detail, not the main idea: “enable their bodies and their minds to function safely” is again instrumental to exercising free reason, not the ultimate goal.
- C half right, half wrong: “not act unfairly toward one another” hints at harmony, but the passage subordinates it to the exercise of free reason; harmony is a by-product, not the named end.
Specialist insight
A “ultimate goal / last end” detail item is a means-vs-end test. The passage lists several attractive goods — safety, healthy functioning, fairness — and each is a tempting answer, but the text explicitly labels the “last end” as freeing each man to live and exercise free reason: liberty. The discipline is to find the phrase the passage marks as the end (“the last end of the state is… to free each man”) and refuse the supporting goods, however appealing. (d).
The passage labels the state's "last end" as freeing each man to live and reason freely — liberty (d); safety, health and harmony are the means it names toward that end.