What does Lewis infer from the fact that people who quarrel usually defend themselves rather than reject the idea of fairness?

### Why this is right A quarrel about fairness assumes some shared standard by which conduct can be called fair or unfair. The disputants may disagree about the facts or about whether an exception applies, but their arguments make sense because they appeal to a common rule. ### The concept Lewis distinguishes moral disagreement from having no moral standard at all. A person accused of unfairness usually offers an excuse rather than saying fairness is irrelevant. That pattern supports his claim that people recognize a Moral Law, even when they break it. ### The other options - **B. Moral rules are only personal preferences.**: This would make moral accusation no more than dislike, which is not how the quarrellers argue. - **C. People have no moral ideas until they are formally taught them.**: Lewis argues for broad human awareness of basic moral expectations, though people also learn how to express them. - **D. Every moral disagreement is caused by different instincts.**: The passage distinguishes instincts from the rule used to judge them. ### Terms - **Moral Law**: Lewis’s term for a standard of right and wrong that people regard as binding. ### Remember A moral excuse often reveals that the person accepts the rule they have broken.