Two things are true of all immoral actions. First, if they are performed in public, they offend public sensibilities....

Victoria June 20, 2019

Hi @izyat,

While we can reverse 'all' statements if we use the quantifier 'some,' this does not necessarily mean that all answer choices which use the word 'some' could be true. It is essential to diagram the statements and their contrapositive as well as, in this case, their reversals using the quantifier 'some' before approaching the question stem to ensure that you have a thorough understanding of the stimulus as well as a visual representation of what can be logically concluded.

Let's go through this passage together.

"Two things are true of all immoral actions. First, if they are performed in public, they offend public sensibilities. Second, they are accompanied by feelings of guilt."

Immoral action AND performed in public - > offends public
Not offends public - > not immoral action OR not performed in public

We can also reverse the above using the 'some' quantifier:
Offends public - some - immoral action AND performed in public

Immoral action - > accompanied by feelings of guilt
Not accompanied by feelings of guilt - > not immoral

We can also reverse the above using the 'some' quantifier:
Accompanied by feelings of guilt - some - immoral action

Now let's go through the answer choices

B is incorrect because there is nothing in the stimulus which addresses why immoral actions are right or wrong. Regardless of why an immoral action is right or wrong, all immoral actions are still accompanied by feelings of guilt.

C is incorrect because it could be true. We know that all immoral actions, if they are performed in public, offend public sensibilities and are accompanied by feelings of guilt. This does not mean that all actions that offend public sensibilities if they are performed in public are immoral actions. As not all publicly offensive actions are immoral actions, this means that some publicly offensive actions are also not necessarily accompanied by feelings of guilt.

D is incorrect because it could be true. We know that all immoral actions are accompanied by feelings of guilt. We also know that some actions that are accompanied by feelings of guilt are immoral. This means that some actions that are accompanied by feelings of guilt are also not immoral.

E is tricky. While it is a mistaken reversal of the second S&N diagram outlined above, it does not mean that it is impossible. It could be true that every action performed in public that is accompanied by feelings of guilt is immoral as there is nothing in the stimulus to contradict this.

While E is a bit confusing and tempting as an answer choice, we can see that answer choice A is clearly false when we refer back to our S&N and quantifier diagrams above. Disregarding the "not performed in public" portion, this statement reads: "some immoral actions are not accompanied by feelings of guilt." We know from the stimulus that ALL immoral actions are accompanied by guilt so answer choice A must be false and, therefore, is the correct answer.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.